Conditioner with sensors for nutritional substances

ABSTRACT

Nutritional substance systems and methods are disclosed enabling the tracking and communication of changes in nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values of nutritional substances, and further enabling the adaptive storage and adaptive conditioning of nutritional substances.

RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/466,824, filed on Aug. 22, 2014 and issued asU.S. Pat. No. 9,460,633, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/074,664, filed on Nov. 7, 2013 and issued asU.S. Pat. No. 8,851,365, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/044,851, filed on Oct. 2, 2013 and issued asU.S. Pat. No. 9,080,997, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/931,733, filed on Jun. 28, 2013 and issued asU.S. Pat. No. 9,171,061, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/684,113, filed on Nov. 21, 2012, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/485,863, filed onMay 31, 2012, which claims the benefit of priority to U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application No. 61/624,992, filed on Apr. 16, 2012, U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61/625,002, filed on Apr. 16, 2012,and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/625,010, filed on Apr.16, 2012, the contents of which are all incorporated herein by referencein their entireties.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/931,733 is also acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/602,040,filed on Aug. 31, 2012, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/485,866, filed on May 31, 2012, which claims thebenefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/624,745,filed on Apr. 16, 2012, U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/624,765,filed on Apr. 16, 2012, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/624,788,filed on Apr. 16, 2012, the contents of which are all incorporatedherein by reference in their entireties.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/931,733 is also acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/560,965,filed on Jul. 27, 2012 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,490,862, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/485,863, filed onMay 31, 2012, which claims the benefit of priority to U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application No. 61/624,992, filed on Apr. 16, 2012, U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/625,002, filed on Apr. 16, 2012, and U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61/625,010, filed on Apr. 16, 2012,the contents of which are all incorporated herein by reference in theirentireties.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present inventions relate to appliances for nutritional substancesin conjunction with the collection, transmission, and use of informationregarding a current nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value of thenutritional substance.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Nutritional substances are traditionally grown (plants), raised(animals) or synthesized (synthetic compounds). Additionally,nutritional substances can be found in a wild, non-cultivated form,which can be caught or collected. While the collectors and creators ofnutritional substances generally obtain and/or generate informationabout the source, history, caloric content and/or nutritional content oftheir products, they generally do not pass such information along to theusers of their products. It would be desirable for such information beavailable to the consumers of nutritional substances, as well as allparticipants in the food and beverage industry—the nutritional substancesupply system.

Caloric content refers to the energy in nutritional substances, commonlymeasured in calories. The caloric content could be represented as sugarsand/or carbohydrates in the nutritional substances. The nutritionalcontent, also referred to herein as nutritional value, of foods andbeverages, as used herein, refers to the non-caloric content of thesenutritional substances which are beneficial to the organisms whichconsume these nutritional substances. For example, the nutritionalcontent of a nutritional substance could include vitamins, minerals,proteins, and other non-caloric components which are necessary, or atleast beneficial, to the organism consuming the nutritional substances.

Consumers are beginning to that the food and beverage industry offerproducts which include higher nutritional content, and/or at leastinformation regarding nutritional content of such products, as well asinformation regarding the source, creation and other origin informationfor the nutritional substance. In fact, consumers are already willing topay higher prices for higher nutritional content. This can be seen athigh-end grocery stores which offer organic, minimally processed, fresh,non-adulterated nutritional substances. Further, as societies andgovernments seek to improve their constituents' health and lowerhealthcare costs, incentives and/or mandates will be given to the foodand beverage industry to track, maintain, and/or increase thenutritional content of nutritional substances they handle. There will bea need for an industry-wide solution to allow the management ofnutritional content across the entire cycle from creation toconsumption. In order to manage the nutritional content of nutritionalsubstances across the entire cycle from creation to consumption, thenutritional substance industry will need to identify, track, measure,estimate, preserve, transform, condition, and record nutritional contentfor nutritional substances. Of particular importance is the measurement,estimation, and tracking of changes to the nutritional content of anutritional substance from creation to consumption. This informationcould be used, not only by the consumer in selecting particularnutritional substances to consume, but could be used by the other foodand beverage industry participants, including creation, preservation,transformation, and conditioning, to make decisions on how to create,handle and process nutritional substances. Additionally, those who sellnutritional substances to consumers, such as restaurants and grocerystores, could communicate perceived qualitative values of thenutritional substance in their efforts to market and position theirnutritional substance products. Further, a determinant of price of thenutritional substance could be particular nutritional, organoleptic, oraesthetic values, and if changes to those values are perceived asdesirable. For example, if a desirable value has been maintained,improved, or minimally degraded, it could be marketed as a premiumproduct. Still further, a system allowing creators, preservers,transformers, and conditioners of nutritional substances to updatelabeling content to reflect the most current information about thenutritional substance would provide consumers with the information theyneed to make informed decisions regarding the nutritional substancesthey purchase and consume. Such information updates could includenutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic values of the nutritionalsubstance, and may further include information regarding the source,creation and other origin information for the nutritional substance.

For example, the grower of sweet corn generally only provides basicinformation as the variety and grade of its corn to the packager, whopreserves and ships the corn to a producer for use in a ready-to-eatdinner. The packager may only tell the producer that the corn has beenfrozen as loose kernels of sweet corn. The producer may only provide theconsumer with rudimentary instructions how to cook or reheat theready-to-eat dinner in a microwave oven, toaster oven or conventionaloven, and only tell the consumer that the dinner contains whole kernelcorn among the various items in the dinner. Finally, the consumer of thedinner will likely keep her opinions on the quality of the dinner toherself, unless it was an especially bad experience, where she mightcontact the producer's customer support program to complain. Veryminimal, or no, information on the nutritional content of theready-to-eat dinner is passed along to the consumer. The consumer knowsessentially nothing about changes (generally a degradation, but could bea maintenance or even an improvement) to the nutritional content of thesweet corn from creation, processing, packaging, cooking, preservation,preparation by consumer, and finally consumption by the consumer. Theconsumer is even more unlikely to be aware of possible changes tolabeling content that a creator, preserver, transformer, or conditionermay just have become be aware of, such as changes in information aboutnutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic values of the nutritionalsubstance or changes in information regarding the source, creation andother origin information about the nutritional substance. Ifcommunicated, such changes to labeling content could affect a purchasingpreference or consumption preference of a consumer. Further, ifcommunicated, such changes to labeling content could affect the health,safety, and wellbeing of the consumer. It is also clear that suchchanges would best be communicated rapidly and by a means readilyutilized by a consumer.

Consumers' needs are changing as consumers are demanding healthierfoods, such as “organic foods.” Consumers are also asking for moreinformation about the nutritional substances they consume, such asspecific characteristics' relating not only to nutritional content, butto allergens or digestive intolerances. For example, nutritionalsubstances which contain lactose, gluten, nuts, dyes, etc. need to beavoided by certain consumers. However, the producer of the ready-to-eatdinner, in the prior example, has very little information to share otherthan possibly the source of the elements of the ready-to-eat dinner andits processing steps in preparing the dinner. Generally, the producer ofthe ready-to-eat dinner does not know the nutritional content andorganoleptic state and aesthetic condition of the product after it hasbeen reheated or cooked by the consumer, cannot predict changes to theseproperties, and cannot inform a consumer of this information to enablethe consumer to better meet their needs. For example, the consumer maywant to know what proportion of desired organoleptic properties orvalues, desired nutritional content or values, or desired aestheticproperties or values of the corn in the ready-to-eat dinner remain aftercooking or reheating, and the change in the desired nutritional contentor values, the desired organoleptic properties or values, or the desiredaesthetic properties or values (usually a degradation, but could be amaintenance or even improvement). There is a need to preserve, measure,estimate, store and/or transmit information regarding such nutritional,organoleptic, and aesthetic values, including changes to these values,throughout the nutritional substance supply system. Given theopportunity and a system capable of receiving and processing real timeconsumer feedback and updates regarding changes in the nutritional,organoleptic, and/or aesthetic value of nutritional substances,consumers can even play a role in updating dynamic information about thenutritional substances they have purchased and/or prepared forconsumption, such that the information is available and useful to othersin the nutritional substance supply system. Ideally, equipment for localstorage of nutritional substances by consumers, such as any foodpreparation appliance, storage location, portable container, tray, bag,and so forth, could interact with nutritional substance products toprovide such consumer feedback and updates. Ideally, equipment forconditioning of nutritional substances by consumers, such as any foodpreparation appliance, oven, toaster oven, toaster, blender, stove top,grill, microwave, and so forth, could interact with nutritionalsubstance products to provide such consumer feedback and updates.Further, equipment for local storage of medicament products byconsumers, such as any medicine cabinet, storage location, portablecontainer, tray, bag, and so forth, could interact with the medicamentproduct to provide such consumer feedback and updates.

The caloric and nutritional content information for a prepared food thatis provided to the consumer is often minimal. For example, when sugar islisted in the ingredient list, the consumer generally does receive anyinformation about the source of the sugar, which can come from a varietyof plants, such as sugarcane, beets, or corn, which will affect itsnutritional content. Conversely, some nutritional information that isprovided to consumers is so detailed, the consumer can do little withit. For example, this of ingredients is from a nutritional label on aconsumer product: Vitamins—A 355 IU 7%, E 0.8 mg 4%, K 0.5 mcg, 1%,Thiamin 0.6 mg 43%, Riboflavin 0.3 mg 20%, Niacin 6.0 mg 30%, B6 1.0 mg52%, Foliate 31.5 mcg 8%, Pantothenic 7%; Minerals Calcium 11.61%, Iron4.5 mg 25%, Phosphorus 349 mg 35%, Potassium 476 mg 14%, Sodium 58.1 mg2%, Zinc 3.7 mg 24%, Copper 0.5 mg 26%, Manganese 0.8 mg 40%, Selenium25.7 mcg 37%; Carbohydrate 123 g, Dietary fiber 12.1 g, Saturated fat7.9 g, Monosaturated Fat 2, 1 g, Polysaturated Fat 3.6 g, Omega 3 fattyacids 108 g, Omega 6 fatty acids 3481, Ash 2.0 g and Water 17.2 g.(%=Daily Value). There is a need to provide information aboutnutritional substances in a meaningful manner. Such information needs tobe presented in a manner that meets the specific needs of a particularconsumer. For example, consumers with a medical condition, such asdiabetes, would want to track specific information regarding nutritionalvalues associated with sugar and other nutrients in the foods andbeverages they consume, and would benefit further from knowing changesin these values or having tools to quickly indicate or estimate thesechanges in a retrospective, current, or prospective fashion, and eventools to report these changes, or impressions of these changes, in areal-time fashion. Consumers would want to track medicaments forspecific requirements, changes in their medicinal values, degradation,and for potential interactions with other medicaments and nutritionalsubstances they are consuming or planning to consume.

In fact, each industry participant in the food and beverage industryalready creates and tracks some information, including caloric andnutritional information, about their product internally. For example,the farmer who grew the corn knows the variety of the seed, condition ofthe soil, the source of the water, the fertilizers and pesticides used,and can measure the caloric and nutritional content at creation. Thepackager of the corn knows when it was picked, how it was transported tothe packaging plant, how the corn was preserved and packaged beforebeing sent to the ready-to-eat dinner producer, when it was delivered tothe producer, and what degradation to caloric and nutritional contenthas occurred. The producer knows the source of each element of theready-to-eat dinner, how it was processed, including the recipefollowed, and how it was preserved and packaged for the consumer. Notonly does such a producer know what degradation to caloric andnutritional content occurred, the producer can modify its processing andpost-processing preservation to minimally affect nutritional content.The preparation of the nutritional substance for consumption can alsodegrade the nutritional content of nutritional substances. Finally, theconsumer knows how she prepared the dinner, what condiments were added,and whether she did or did not enjoy it.

If there was a mechanism to share this information, the quality of thenutritional substances, including caloric and nutritional, organoleptic,and aesthetic value, could be preserved and improved. Consumers could bebetter informed about nutritional substances they select and consume,including the state, and changes in the state, of the nutritionalsubstance throughout its lifecycle from creation to consumption. Theefficiency and cost effectiveness of nutritional substances could alsobe improved. Feedback within the entire chain from creator to consumercould provide a closed-loop system that could improve quality (taste,appearance, and caloric and nutritional content), efficiency, value andprofit. For example, in the milk supply chain, at least 10% of the milkproduced is wasted due to safety margins included in product expirationdates. The use of more accurate tracking information, measured quality(including nutritional content) information, and historicalenvironmental information could substantially reduce such waste.Collecting, preserving, measuring and/or tracking information about anutritional substance in the nutritional substance supply system, wouldallow needed accountability. There would be nothing to hide.

As consumers are demanding more information about what they consume,they are asking for products that have higher nutritional content andmore closely match good nutritional requirements, and would likenutritional products to actually meet their specific nutritionalrequirements. While grocery stores, restaurants, and all those whoprocess and sell food and beverages may obtain some information fromcurrent nutritional substance tracking systems, such as labels, thesecurrent systems can provide only limited information.

Current packaging materials for nutritional substances include plastics,paper, cardboard, glass, and synthetic materials. Generally, thepackaging material is chosen by the producer to best preserve thequality of the nutritional substance until used by the customer. In somecases, the packaging may include some information regarding type ofnutritional substance, identity of the producer, and the country oforigin. Such packaging generally does not transmit source information ofthe nutritional substance, such as creation information, current orhistoric information as to the external conditions of the packagednutritional substance, or current or historic information as to theinternal conditions of the packaged nutritional substance.

Traditional food processors take nutritional substances from producersand transform them into nutritional substances for consumption byconsumers. While they have some knowledge of the nutritional substancesthey purchase, and make such selections to meet the needs of theconsumers, they generally do not transmit that information along toconsumers, nor change the way they transform the nutritional substancesbased on the history or current condition of the nutritional substancesthey receive for transformation.

Consumers of nutritional substances are sometimes given options on howto prepare nutritional substances they have obtained from the store,such as different cooking devices: microwave ovens, toaster ovens,conventional ovens, etc., and/or limited taste preferences such ascrunchy or soft. However, if the consumer desires to prepare a specificrecipe, they must obtain all the proper ingredients themselves, as wellas prepare the recipe themselves including which cooking appliances needto be used. Further, the consumer has no way of knowing the history orcurrent condition of the nutritional substances they obtain forpreparing a desired recipe. Still further, the consumer has no way ofknowing how to change or modify the conditioning process to achievedesired nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic properties afterpreparation. Consumers locally store, condition, and consume nutritionalsubstances they acquire, but have no way to change the way they locallystore, condition, and consume the nutritional substances based on thehistory or current condition of the nutritional substances.

An important issue in the creation, preservation, transformation,conditioning, and consumption of nutritional substances are the changesthat occur in nutritional substances due to a variety of internal andexternal factors. Because nutritional substances are composed ofbiological, organic, and/or chemical compounds, they are generallysubject to degradation. This degradation generally reduces thenutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of nutritionalsubstances. While not always true, nutritional substances are bestconsumed at their point of creation. However, being able to consumenutritional substances at the farm, at the slaughterhouse, at thefishery, or at the food processing plant is at least inconvenient, ifnot impossible. Currently, the food and beverage industry attempts tominimize the loss of nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic value,often through the use of additives or preservatives and often throughfreezing the nutritional substance, and/or attempts to hide this loss ofnutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic value from consumers.Consumers are left are provided with virtually no tools to help them intheir attempts to determine and minimize the loss of nutritional,organoleptic, and/or aesthetic value of the nutritional substances theyacquire, locally store, condition, and consume.

Overall, the examples herein of some prior or related systems and theirassociated limitations are intended to be illustrative and notexclusive. Other limitations of existing or prior systems will becomeapparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the followingDetailed Description.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

In an object of the present invention is to allow for changes ofnutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of a nutritionalsubstance to be tracked and degradation of said value to be tracked andminimized. In a further object, information regarding said changes ordegradation, and information related to origin and creation of thenutritional substance, is collected, stored, and transmitted, fromcreation through consumption, including all phases of preservation,transformation, local storage and conditioning.

In an object of the present invention, appliances and equipment areprovided to track changes of nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aestheticvalues of a nutritional substance, and to minimize and/or trackdegradation of said values, and/or collect, store, and/or transmitinformation regarding these changes or degradation, and informationrelated to origin and creation of the nutritional substance, duringlocal storage and conditioning of the nutritional sub stance.

In an object of the present invention, local storage of a nutritionalsubstance is modified or adapted to maintain and/or minimize degradationof and/or improve nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values ofthe nutritional substance, responsive to information related to changesor degradation of nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values ofthe nutritional substance.

In a further object of the present invention, local storage of anutritional substance is modified or adapted to maintain and/or minimizedegradation of and/or improve nutritional, organoleptic, and/oraesthetic values of the nutritional substance responsive to informationregarding a residual nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value ofthe nutritional substance at the initiation of said local storage.

In a further object of the present invention, local storage of anutritional substance is modified or adapted to maintain and/or minimizedegradation of and/or improve nutritional, organoleptic, and/oraesthetic values of the nutritional substance, responsive to informationsensed during said local storage regarding a nutritional, organoleptic,or aesthetic value of the nutritional substance, including informationrelating to the weight of the substance.

In a further object of the present invention, an appliance for anutritional substance is modified or adapted to display or outputorganoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of the nutritional substance,responsive to information sensed during said local storage regarding anutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value of the nutritionalsubstance, including information relating to the weight of thesubstance.

In an object of the present invention, conditioning of a nutritionalsubstance is modified or adapted to maintain and/or minimize degradationof and/or improve nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values ofthe nutritional substance, responsive to information related to changesor degradation of nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values ofthe nutritional substance.

In a further object of the present invention, conditioning of anutritional substance is modified or adapted to maintain and/or minimizedegradation of and/or improve nutritional, organoleptic, and/oraesthetic values of the nutritional substance responsive to informationregarding a residual nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value ofthe nutritional substance at the initiation of said conditioning.

In a further object of the present invention, conditioning of anutritional substance is modified or adapted to maintain and/or minimizedegradation of and/or improve nutritional, organoleptic, and/oraesthetic values of the nutritional substance, responsive to informationsensed during said conditioning regarding a nutritional, organoleptic,or aesthetic value of the nutritional substance.

In a further object of the present invention, conditioning of anutritional substance is modified or adapted to maintain and/or minimizedegradation of and/or improve nutritional, organoleptic, and/oraesthetic values of the nutritional substance, responsive to at leastone of current consumer information, current consumer input, or consumerinput regarding prior experience.

In an object of the present invention, information related to changes ordegradation of nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of anutritional substance, including initial nutritional, organoleptic,and/or aesthetic values or other information related to the origin andcreation of a nutritional substance, and information related tonutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values sensed during localstorage and conditioning, can be utilized during local storage andconditioning of the nutritional substance to confirm compliance, ornon-compliance, with general consumer requirements, or with a specificconsumer's requirements, regarding nutritional, organoleptic, and/oraesthetic values, or regarding origin and creation of the nutritionalsubstance.

In an object of the present invention, information collected by sensorsof, or sensors communicating with, a local storage appliance, cancollect all types of physical attribute data by sensing a nutritionalsubstance, including weight data, and that the nutritional substance canbe identified and its current nutritional, organoleptic, and aestheticstate determined, by comparing the sensed data to a library of data forknown nutritional substances at known nutritional, organoleptic, andaesthetic states, and further that the nutritional substance can beadaptively stored responsive to: its initial nutritional, organoleptic,or aesthetic state; consumer input received through a consumer interfaceof the local storage appliance related to a desired nutritional,organoleptic, or aesthetic state after local storage; and informationsensed during local storage related to changes in the nutritionalsubstance's nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic state

In an object of the present invention, information collected by sensorsof, or sensors communicating with, a conditioning appliance, can collectall types of physical attribute data, including weight data, by sensinga nutritional substance, and that the nutritional substance can beidentified and its current nutritional, organoleptic, and aestheticstate determined, by comparing the sensed data to a library of data forknown nutritional substances at known nutritional, organoleptic, andaesthetic states, and further that the nutritional substance can beadaptively conditioned responsive to: its initial nutritional,organoleptic, or aesthetic state; consumer input received through aconsumer interface of the conditioning appliance related to a desirednutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic state after conditioning; andinformation sensed during conditioning related to changes in thenutritional substance's nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic state.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In an embodiment of the present invention, a system is provided for thetracking of changes of nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aestheticvalues of a nutritional substance, wherein the system may collect,store, and transmit information regarding the changes of nutritional,organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of the nutritional substance, andinformation related to origin and creation of the nutritional substance,from creation through consumption, including all phases of preservation,transformation, local storage and conditioning.

In embodiments of the present invention, appliances and equipment trackchanges of nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of anutritional substance, and minimize and/or track degradation of saidvalues, wherein the appliances and equipment may collect, store, andtransmit information regarding the changes of nutritional, organoleptic,and/or aesthetic values of the nutritional substance, and informationrelated to origin and creation of the nutritional substance, duringlocal storage and conditioning of the nutritional substance.

In an embodiment of the present invention, local storage appliances andequipment modify or adapt local storage of a nutritional substance tomaintain and/or minimize degradation of and/or improve, and/or displaynutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of the nutritionalsubstance, responsive to information related to changes or degradationof nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of the nutritionalsubstance.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, local storageappliances and equipment modify or adapt local storage of a nutritionalsubstance to maintain and/or minimize degradation of and/or improve,and/or display nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of thenutritional substance responsive to information regarding a residualnutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value of the nutritionalsubstance at the initiation of said local storage.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, local storageappliances and equipment modify or adapt local storage of a nutritionalsubstance to maintain and/or minimize degradation of and/or improve,and/or display nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of thenutritional substance, responsive to information sensed during saidlocal storage regarding a nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic valueof the nutritional substance.

In an embodiment of the present invention, conditioning appliances andequipment modify or adapt conditioning of a nutritional substance tomaintain and/or minimize degradation of and/or improve, and/or displaynutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of the nutritionalsubstance, responsive to information related to changes or degradationof nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of the nutritionalsubstance and responsive to information sensed within the conditionerand/or the of the nutritional substance.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, conditioningappliances and equipment modify or adapt local storage of a nutritionalsubstance to maintain and/or minimize degradation of and/or improve,and/or display nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of thenutritional substance responsive to information regarding a residualnutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value of the nutritionalsubstance at the initiation of said conditioning.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, conditioningappliances and equipment modify or adapt local storage of a nutritionalsubstance to maintain and/or minimize degradation of and/or improve,and/or display nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of thenutritional substance, responsive to information sensed during saidconditioning regarding a nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic valueof the nutritional substance

In an embodiment of the present invention, during local storage orconditioning of a nutritional substance, information related to changesor degradation of nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values ofthe nutritional substance, including initial nutritional, organoleptic,and/or aesthetic values or other information related to the origin andcreation of the nutritional substance, and information related tonutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values sensed during localstorage and conditioning, is compared with general consumerrequirements, or with a specific consumer's requirements, to confirmcompliance, or non-compliance, regarding nutritional, organoleptic,and/or aesthetic values, or regarding origin and creation of thenutritional substance, or to display the nutritional, organoleptic,and/or aesthetic values to the consumer.

In an embodiment of the present invention, conditioning of a nutritionalsubstance is modified or adapted to maintain and/or minimize degradationof and/or improve nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values ofthe nutritional substance, responsive to at least one of currentconsumer information, current consumer input, or consumer inputregarding prior experience.

In an embodiment of the present invention, information collected bysensors of, or sensors communicating with, a local storage appliance,for example weight measurement sensors, can collect all types ofphysical attribute data by sensing a nutritional substance, and can beidentify the nutritional substance and its current nutritional,organoleptic, and aesthetic state by comparing the sensed data to alibrary of data for known nutritional substances at known nutritional,organoleptic, and aesthetic states, and further can be adaptively storethe nutritional substance responsive to: its initial nutritional,organoleptic, or aesthetic state; consumer input received through aconsumer interface of the local storage appliance related to a desirednutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic state after local storage; andinformation sensed during local storage related to changes in thenutritional substance's nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic state.

In an embodiment of the present invention, information collected bysensors of, or sensors communicating with, a conditioning appliance, cancollect all types of physical attribute data by sensing a nutritionalsubstance including weight data, and can be identify the nutritionalsubstance and its current nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic stateby comparing the sensed data to a library of data for known nutritionalsubstances at known nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic states, andfurther can be adaptively condition the nutritional substance responsiveto: its initial nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic state; consumerinput received through a consumer interface of the conditioningappliance related to a desired nutritional, organoleptic, or aestheticstate after conditioning; and information sensed during conditioningrelated to changes in the nutritional substance's nutritional,organoleptic, or aesthetic state.

Other advantages and features will become apparent from the followingdescription and claims. It should be understood that the description andspecific examples are intended for purposes of illustration only and notintended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, exemplify the embodiments of the presentinvention and, together with the description, serve to explain andillustrate principles of the invention. The drawings are intended toillustrate major features of the exemplary embodiments in a diagrammaticmanner. The drawings are not intended to depict every feature of actualembodiments nor relative dimensions of the depicted elements, and arenot drawn to scale.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic functional block diagram of a nutritionalsubstance supply system relating to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a graph representing a value of a nutritional substancewhich changes according to a change of condition for the nutritionalsubstance.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic functional block diagram of a transformationmodule according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic functional block diagram of a transformationmodule according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic functional block diagram of a transformationmodule according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows a schematic functional block diagram of a conditioningmodule according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows a schematic functional block diagram of a conditioningmodule according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 shows a schematic functional block diagram of a conditioningmodule according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 shows a schematic functional block diagram of a conditioningmodule according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 shows a graph representing a value of a nutritional substancewhich changes according to changes in multiple conditions for thenutritional substance.

FIG. 11 shows a graph representing a value of a nutritional substancewhich changes according to changes in multiple conditions for thenutritional substance.

FIG. 12 shows a schematic functional block diagram of a conditioningmodule according to the present invention.

FIGS. 13a and 13b show formats according to the present invention bywhich a ΔN, and related residual and initial nutritional, organoleptic,and aesthetic values, may be expressed.

FIG. 14 shows a schematic functional block diagram of a process formodifying a conditioning protocol accordingly to the present invention.

FIG. 15 shows a table including values of the amount of nutritionalcontent retained after cooking various nutritional substances based ondata from the USDA.

FIG. 16 shows bar graphs representing the nutritional retention valuesfor various conditioning methods for vegetable stir fry based on datafrom the USDA.

FIG. 17 shows bar graphs representing the nutritional retention valuesfor various conditioning methods for chicken based on data from theUSDA.

FIG. 18 shows a table including values of various cooking yields forvarious nutritional substances based on data from the USDA.

In the drawings, the same reference numbers and any acronyms identifyelements or acts with the same or similar structure or functionality forease of understanding and convenience. To easily identify the discussionof any particular element or act, the most significant digit or digitsin a reference number refer to the Figure number in which that elementis first introduced.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Various examples of the invention will now be described. The followingdescription provides specific details for a thorough understanding andenabling description of these examples. One skilled in the relevant artwill understand, however, that the invention may be practiced withoutmany of these details. Likewise, one skilled in the relevant art willalso understand that the invention can include many other obviousfeatures not described in detail herein. Additionally, some well-knownstructures or functions may not be shown or described in detail below,so as to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the relevant description.

The terminology used below is to be interpreted in its broadestreasonable manner, even though it is being used in conjunction with adetailed description of certain specific examples of the invention.Indeed, certain terms may even be emphasized below; however, anyterminology intended to be interpreted in any restricted manner will beovertly and specifically defined as such in this Detailed Descriptionsection.

The following discussion provides a brief, general description of arepresentative environment in which the invention can be implemented.Although not required, aspects of the invention may be described belowin the general context of computer-executable instructions, such asroutines executed by a general-purpose data processing device (e.g., aserver computer or a personal computer). Those skilled in the relevantart will appreciate that the invention can be practiced with othercommunications, data processing, or computer system configurations,including: wireless devices, Internet appliances, hand-held devices(including personal digital assistants (PDAs)), wearable computers, allmanner of cellular or mobile phones, multi-processor systems,microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, set-topboxes, network PCs, mini-computers, mainframe computers, and the like.Indeed, the terms “controller,” “computer,” “server,” and the like areused interchangeably herein, and may refer to any of the above devicesand systems.

While aspects of the invention, such as certain functions, are describedas being performed exclusively on a single device, the invention canalso be practiced in distributed environments where functions or modulesare shared among disparate processing devices. The disparate processingdevices are linked through a communications network, such as a LocalArea Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), or the Internet. In adistributed computing environment, program modules may be located inboth local and remote memory storage devices.

Aspects of the invention may be stored or distributed on tangiblecomputer-readable media, including magnetically or optically readablecomputer discs, hard-wired or preprogrammed chips (e.g., EEPROMsemiconductor chips), nanotechnology memory, biological memory, or otherdata storage media. Alternatively, computer implemented instructions,data structures, screen displays, and other data related to theinvention may be distributed over the Internet or over other networks(including wireless networks), on a propagated signal on a propagationmedium (e.g., an electromagnetic wave(s), a sound wave, etc.) over aperiod of time. In some implementations, the data may be provided on anyanalog or digital network (packet switched, circuit switched, or otherscheme).

In some instances, the interconnection between modules is the internet,allowing the modules (with, for example, WiFi capability) to access webcontent offered through various web servers. The network may be any typeof cellular, IP-based or converged telecommunications network, includingbut not limited to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), TimeDivision Multiple Access (TDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA),Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDM), General PacketRadio Service (GPRS), Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), AdvancedMobile Phone System (AMPS), Worldwide Interoperability for MicrowaveAccess (WiMAX), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS),Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO), Long Term Evolution (LTE), Ultra MobileBroadband (UMB), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Unlicensed MobileAccess (UMA), etc.

The modules in the systems can be understood to be integrated in someinstances and in particular embodiments, only particular modules may beinterconnected.

FIG. 1 shows the components of a nutritional substance industry 10. Itshould be understood that this could be the food and beverage ecosystemfor human consumption, but could also be the feed industry for animalconsumption, such as the pet food industry. A goal of the presentinvention for nutritional substance industry 10 is to create, preserve,transform and trace the change in nutritional, organoleptic and/oraesthetic values of nutritional substances, collectively andindividually also referred to herein as ΔN, through their creation,preservation, transformation, conditioning and consumption. While thenutritional substance industry 10 can be composed of many companies orbusinesses, it can also be integrated into combinations of businessserving many roles, or can be one business or even individual. Since ΔNis a measure of the change in a value of a nutritional substance,knowledge of a prior value (or state) of a nutritional substance and theΔN value will provide knowledge of the changed value (or state) of anutritional substance, and can further provide the ability to estimate achange in value (or state). The ΔN value may be represented or displayedto a consumer as a per unit weight (e.g., ΔN per ounce, or ΔN per gram)format or value, may be displayed as a graph showing the change of thein the nutritional substance over time or in various other formats thatwould demonstrate a change in a ΔN. For example, a consumer may bepresented with a graph showing the historical or prospective change inthe nutritional, organoleptic and/or aesthetic values of the nutritionalsubstance, over time, cooking temperatures, or other choices orattributes. This presents a continuum to the consumer of how ΔN maychange with the change in various factors including time and cookingtemperature.

The ΔN value may also represent a comparison between the gold standardor average for a nutritional substance, and a particular or actualnutritional substance a consumer is considering purchasing. Accordingly,the attributes of a particular nutritional substance can be compared tothe expected or optimal attributes of that type or category ofnutritional substance. This allows a consumer to make more informedchoices about the nutritional value of a substance a consumer iscontemplating purchasing, or make informed decisions about preparationof the nutritional substance. For example, ΔN may represent a differencein the vitamin C content between on optimal orange that is picked whenripe from the vine, and an actual orange that a consumer is consideringpurchasing. In this example, if the consumer's orange was picked fromthe vine early, it may have both different surface physicalcharacteristics that may be detectable by the sensors and methodsdescribed herein, and different vitamin C content. A database asdescribed herein may include information regarding the physicalattributes of an orange and how those factors correlate to the vitamin Ccontent and other nutritional information. Accordingly, the systemsdisclosed herein may be able to determine the difference in vitamin Cbetween a specific orange and the average vitamin C in oranges or theoptimal vitamin C of, for example, an orange just picked from the vinewhen ripe. Accordingly, ripeness of tomatoes, water content, vitamincontent, and other nutritional, organoleptic and/or aesthetic values maybe compared for a specific, actual item a consumer is consideringpurchasing to the average or gold standard for that item. Accordingly, aconsumer may then discern whether that particular item is providing atleast an average or optimal nutrient, organoleptic and/or aestheticvalue.

These differences may be presented in absolute value, for instance thedifference in vitamin C, as a per unit weight value, as a graphcomparing the present item versus an average curve for that specificitem, or may be presented as a difference in nutritional content perunit price. For example, certain oranges or farmer's market produce mayclaim to have higher nutritional content because they are fresher orwere harvested from the vines/roots closer in time to when the fruitripened, leading to a higher nutritional content. However, these fruitstend to be higher in price, and accordingly, the system may be utilizedto determine whether higher priced fruits are actually worth the higherprice, and the amount of nutritional value gained per dollar difference.Accordingly, consumers could make informed choices based on quantitativedata about whether and how much more nutritious more expensive fruit maybe actually worth to the consumer.

In other examples, ΔN may represent the difference between thenutritional content of different subtypes of a broader category ofnutritional substance. For instance, wild caught salmon is claimed tohave up to 10 times greater omega three content than farm raised salmon.Accordingly, the present system could compare the nutritional content ofa specific farm raised salmon to different types of wild caught salmonto determine the difference or ΔN in the omega three values. Asdescribed herein, this difference may be presented as an absolute valuebased on weight, an omega three difference per dollar, a per unit weightdifference, or a graph indicating difference points including, average,optimum, and the current value of the fish on the graph.

Module 200 is the creation module. This can be a system, organization,or individual which creates and/or originates nutritional substances.Examples of this module include a farm which grows produce; a ranchwhich raises beef; an aquaculture farm for growing shrimp; a factorythat synthesizes nutritional compounds; a collector of wild truffles; ora deep sea crab trawler.

Preservation module 300, described in co-pending application U.S. Ser.No. 13/888,353, titled “Preservation System for Nutritional Substances”,and incorporated in its entirety by reference herein, is a preservationsystem for storing, preserving and protecting the nutritional substancescreated by creation module 200. Once the nutritional substance has beencreated, generally, it will need to be packaged in some manner for itstransition to other modules in the nutritional substances industry 10.While preservation module 300 is shown in a particular position in thenutritional substance industry 10, following the creation module 200, itshould be understood that the preservation module 300 actually can beplaced anywhere nutritional substances need to be stored and preservedduring their transition from creation to consumption. For instance,preservation module 300 may be placed after transformation module 400but prior to conditioning module 500, to store the nutritional substanceeither in a retail establishment or in a consumer's household. Thisstorage may include on a shelf, in a refrigerator, or in a freezer at aconsumer residence, restaurant, grocery store or other retailestablishment. It is understood that a nutritional substance mayexperience more than one preservation event, and that such preservationevents may include the local storage of the nutritional substance, suchas by a consumer prior to conditioning or consumption in addition tostorage along the food processing chain.

A specific aspect of the present invention in achieving its goal relatedto ΔN information is to provide a system that tracks ΔN informationduring local storage or local preservation of a nutritional substance bya consumer. It is understood that a nutritional substance may experiencemore than one preservation event, and that such preservation events mayinclude any known form of local storage or local preservation of anutritional substance prior to conditioning and/or consumption,hereinafter referred to as local storage. Such local storage may takemany forms, such as the storage of refrigerated items in a refrigerator,the storage of frozen items in a freezer, the storage of wine bottles ina wine-rack, the storage of canned or dry goods in a pantry, the storageof bread in a bread drawer, the storage of fruit in a counter top tray,and any other form of local nutritional substance storage known to thoseskilled in the art. It is understood that the present inventions includethe local storage of consumable items such as medicaments, for example,medicaments stored in a refrigerator, medicaments stored in a medicinecabinet, or medicaments stored in any other known fashion.

Local storage according to the present invention can be enabled by localstorage environments according to the present invention, such as arefrigerator, drawer, cabinet, portable cooler, and any other type ofstorage environment, wherein the local storage environment is providedwith the same capabilities as the preservation module. In addition;local storage according to the present invention can be enabled by localstorage containers according to the present invention, such as storagebags, trays, resealable storage-ware, jars, boxes, bottles, and anyother type of storage environment, wherein the local storage containeris provided with the same capabilities as the preservation module. In afurther embodiment of the present invention, currently known traditionalformats of storage environments and storage containers are enabled toprovide local storage according to the present invention by beingcoupled with a coupon, hereinafter referred to as a local storagecoupon, wherein the local storage coupon provides a traditional storageenvironment or traditional storage container with the same capabilitiesas the preservation module. The local storage coupon can be attached to,placed within, or in any known fashion coupled with, any known formatsof traditional storage environments and traditional storage containers.

Transformation module 400 is a nutritional substance processing system,such as a manufacturer who processes raw materials such as grains intobreakfast cereals. Transformation module 400 could also be aready-to-eat dinner manufacturer who receives the components, oringredients, also referred to herein as component nutritionalsubstances, for a ready-to-eat dinner from preservation module 300 andprepares them into a frozen dinner. While transformation module 400 isdepicted as one module, it will be understood that nutritionalsubstances may be transformed by a number of transformation modules 400on their path to consumption.

Conditioning module 500 is a consumer preparation system for preparingthe nutritional substance immediately before consumption by theconsumer. Conditioning module 500 can be a microwave oven, a blender, atoaster, a convection oven, toaster oven, a cook, etc. It can also besystems used by commercial establishments to prepare nutritionalsubstance for consumers such as a restaurant, an espresso maker, pizzaoven, and other devices located at businesses which provide nutritionalsubstances to consumers. Such nutritional substances could be forconsumption at the business or for the consumer to take out from thebusiness. Conditioning module 500 can also be a combination of any ofthese devices used to prepare nutritional substances for consumption byconsumers.

Consumer module 600 collects information from the living entity whichconsumes the nutritional substance which has passed through the variousmodules from creation to consumption. The consumer can be a human being,but could also be an animal, such as pets, zoo animals and livestock,which are they themselves nutritional substances for other consumptionchains. Consumers could also be plant life which consumes nutritionalsubstances to grow.

Information module 100 receives and transmits information regarding anutritional substance between each of the modules in the nutritionalsubstance industry 10 including, the creation module 200, thepreservation module 300, the transformation module 400, the conditioningmodule 500, and the consumer module 600. The nutritional substanceinformation module 100 can be an interconnecting informationtransmission system which allows the transmission of information betweenvarious modules. Information module 100 contains a database, alsoreferred to herein as a dynamic nutritional value database, where theinformation regarding the nutritional substance resides, particularly ΔNfor the nutritional substance. Information module 100 may also contain amassive database of physical attributes of known nutritional substancesat known nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic states, also referredto herein as nutritional substance attribute library, which can beutilized for determining the identity and current nutritional,organoleptic, and aesthetic state of a nutritional substance.Information module 100 can be connected to the other modules by avariety of communication systems, such as paper, computer networks, theinternet and telecommunication systems, such as wirelesstelecommunication systems. In a system capable of receiving andprocessing real time consumer feedback and updates regarding changes inthe nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic value of nutritionalsubstances, or ΔN, consumers can even play a role in updating a dynamicnutritional value database with observed or measured information aboutthe nutritional substances they have purchased and/or prepared forconsumption, so that the information is available and useful to othersin the nutritional substance supply system, such as through reportsreflecting the consumer input or through modification of ΔN.

In an embodiment of the present invention, such consumer feedback andupdates related to ΔN information are provided during the local storageof a nutritional substance. In a preferred embodiment, such consumerfeedback and updates related to ΔN information are obtained through, orprovided by, local storage environments, local storage containers, andlocal storage coupons according to the present invention.

In some embodiments of the present invention, consumer feedback andupdates regarding ΔN information may be obtainable from appliances thatinclude the ability to display ΔN information, including ΔN informationcalculated based on a sensed physical attribute of the nutritionalsubstance. The ΔN value may be calculated, represented, or displayed toa consumer as a per unit weight (e.g., ΔN per ounce, or ΔN per gram)format or value. The ΔN value may also represent a comparison betweenthe gold standard or average for a particular nutritional substance, anda particular nutritional substance. Accordingly, the attributes of aparticular nutritional substance can be compared to the expected oroptimal attributes of that type or category of nutritional substance.This allows a consumer to make more informed choices about thenutritional value of a substance a consumer is contemplating purchasing,or make informed decisions about preparation of the nutritionalsubstance. For instance, a scale or other weight measurement device,alone or incorporated into another appliance may be provided with theability to detect the weight and calculate a ΔN based on a currentweight of the nutritional substance and be interconnected to nutritionalsubstance information module 100. Accordingly, a standalone scale may beprovided with the ability to detect the weight of a nutritionalsubstance, and display ΔN information to the consumer based on thecurrent weight of the nutritional substance and provide that informationto the nutritional substance information module 100. Accordingly, thisinformation may be integrated with the other modules includingconditioning module 500 and preservation module 300. Additionally, ascale or other weight sensor may be integrated into a variety of otherappliances to provide the ability to display ΔN information to theconsumer based on the current weight of a nutritional substance.Accordingly, a weight sensor may be integrated into a storage container,shelf, drawer, refrigerator, microwave, smartoven, oven, conditioner570, local storage container, or any other appliances that store,condition or otherwise interact with nutritional substances. An exampleof an electronic scale is described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No.6,538,215, issued on Mar. 25, 2003, titled Programmable Digital Scale,which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

In some embodiments nutritional substances may be identified bydetection of a nutritional substance's optical characteristics. Forexample, various products are available capable using optical technologyto visually identify produce and other nutritional substances, andvarious other items. For example, an automated optical fruit recognitionsystem developed by Fraunhofer is capable of detecting and identifyingvarious produce optically as described by an article titled “AutomatedFruit Recognition” available athttp://www.isob.fraunhofer.de/servlet/is/33328/ which is incorporated byreference herein in its entirety. Accordingly, the Fraunhofer system maybe utilized to determine the identity of a nutritional substance byutilizing optical data detected from the nutritional substance.Accordingly, a user could then utilize their mobile phone or otherdevices with optical sensors to identify nutritional substances.Additionally, an optical object recognition system is disclosed in U.S.Pat. No. 6,310,964 that is described as capable of identifying produceand is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIG. 2 is a graph showing the function of how a nutritional,organoleptic, or aesthetic value of a nutritional substance varies overthe change in a condition of the nutritional substance. Plotted on thevertical axis of this graph can be either the nutritional value,organoleptic value, or even the aesthetic value of a nutritionalsubstance. Plotted on the horizontal axis can be the change in conditionof the nutritional substance over a variable such as time, temperature,location, and/or exposure to environmental conditions. This exposure toenvironmental conditions can include: exposure to air, including the airpressure and partial pressures of oxygen, carbon dioxide, water, orozone; airborne chemicals, pollutants, allergens, dust, smoke,carcinogens, radioactive isotopes, or combustion byproducts; exposure tomoisture; exposure to energy such as mechanical impact, mechanicalvibration, irradiation, heat, or sunlight; or exposure to materials suchas packaging. The function plotted as nutritional substance A could showa ΔN for milk, such as the degradation of a nutritional value of milkover time. Any point on this curve can be compared to another point onthe same curve to measure and/or describe the change in nutritionalvalue, or the ΔN, of nutritional substance A. The plot of thedegradation in the same nutritional value of nutritional substance B,also milk, describes the change in nutritional value, or the ΔN, ofnutritional substance B, a nutritional substance which starts out with ahigher nutritional value than nutritional substance A, but degrades overtime more quickly than nutritional substance A.

In this example, where nutritional substance A and nutritional substanceB are milk, this ΔN information regarding the nutritional substancedegradation profile of each milk could be used by the consumer in theselection and/or consumption of the milk. If the consumer has thisinformation at time zero when selecting a milk product for purchase, theconsumer could consider when the consumer plans to consume the milk, andwhether that is on one occasion or multiple occasions. For example, ifthe consumer planned to consume the milk prior to the point when thecurve represented by nutritional substance B crosses the curverepresented by nutritional substance A, then the consumer should choosethe milk represented by nutritional substance B because it has a highernutritional value until it crosses the curve represented by nutritionalsubstance A. However, if the consumer expects to consume at least someof the milk at a point in time after the time when the curve representedby nutritional substance B crosses the curve represented by nutritionalsubstance A, then the consumer might choose to select the milkrepresented by the nutritional substance A, even though milk representedby nutritional substance A has a lower nutritional value than the milkrepresented by nutritional substance B at an earlier time. This changeto a desired nutritional value in a nutritional substance over a changein a condition of the nutritional substance described in FIG. 2 can bemeasured and/or controlled throughout nutritional substance supplysystem 10 in FIG. 1. This example demonstrates how dynamically generatedinformation regarding a ΔN of a nutritional substance, in this case achange in nutritional value of milk, can be used to understand a rate atwhich that nutritional value changes or degrades; when that nutritionalvalue expires; and a residual nutritional value of the nutritionalsubstance over a change in a condition of the nutritional substance, inthis example a change in time. This ΔN information could further be usedto determine a best consumption date for nutritional substance A and B,which could be different from each other depending upon the dynamicallygenerated information generated for each.

FIG. 10 is a graph showing the function of how a nutritional,organoleptic, or aesthetic value of a nutritional substance varies overa change in time and a change in a second condition, the storagetemperature of the nutritional substance. It is understood that changein time and change in storage temperature are offered by way of example,and are in no way limiting to the types of condition changes to whichthe present inventions may be applied. As an example, the change in anutritional property of milk is shown over a period of time includingits preservation at the supermarket and a subsequent period of timeincluding its local storage in a consumer's refrigerator, which is alocal storage environment according to the present invention. The graphshows that the milk is preserved at a first temperature, Temperature 1,for a first period of time indicated as 0 to 1, while at thesupermarket. The milk is purchased by a consumer at time 1, andsubsequently stored at a second temperature, Temperature 2, for a secondperiod of time indicated as 1 to 3, during local storage in therefrigerator, which is a local storage environment according to thepresent invention. It is noted that Temperature 2 is greater thanTemperature 1, and accordingly the shape of the graph changes at point Awhen the milk is taken from Temperature 1 and stored at Temperature 2.As in the preservation module, the local storage environment canidentify the milk stored within it by reading or scanning its dynamicinformation identifier (or by the consumer entering it), can communicatewith the nutritional substance information module, and accordingly candetermine the milk's ΔN prior to placement within the refrigerator, andcontinue to track the milk's ΔN while in the refrigerator. Therefrigerator is provided with a consumer interface, such as a screen,keyboard, sound system, or any known consumer interface. The consumerinterface enables the refrigerator to communicate to the consumer thatit contains the particular carton of milk, information related to ΔN,including current nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values of themilk, and when the milk will reach a minimum acceptable nutritional,organoleptic, or aesthetic value, indicated by “Minimum” on the verticalaxis of the graph. The minimum acceptable values may be automaticallyprovided by the information module, may be provided by the consumerthrough the consumer interface, or may be the higher of the two values.In this case the consumer can see how the nutritional value of the milkhas degraded prior to purchasing it, and can continue to see how thenutritional value degrades during local storage after its purchase, andwhen it will reach its minimum acceptable nutritional value. Forexample, at the time indicated as 2, the consumer can determine theresidual nutritional value of the milk, corresponding to point B and“Residual” on the vertical axis of the graph. Further, the consumer candetermine the milk's nutritional value will reach a minimum acceptablelevel at time 3, as indicated by “Minimum” on the vertical axis of thegraph, thus knowing the window of time in which the milk will maintainan acceptable nutritional level, as indicated by time 1 to 3. Further,the refrigerator can notify the consumer through its consumer interfacewhen the milk's nutritional value has reached or fallen below theminimum acceptable value.

In fact, if the consumer knows the internal temperature of his ownrefrigerator prior to purchasing the milk, he can predict thedegradation of nutritional value of the milk that will occur after hepurchases it and locally stores it in his refrigerator, thus knowing thewindow of time in which it will maintain an acceptable nutritionallevel, as indicated by time 1 to 3. For example, the consumer mayutilize an application on his smartphone to store, or even monitor, theinternal temperature of his refrigerator. When he goes to thesupermarket, he could scan the milk's dynamic information identifierwith his smartphone, and the application can communicate with thenutritional substance information module to determine a current ΔN, andpredict the ΔN of the milk when stored in his refrigerator. Further, theconsumer may utilize such an application on his smartphone to store, oreven monitor, the internal conditions of various local storageenvironments, local storage containers, and local storage coupons. Inthis way, when he goes to the supermarket, he can scan the dynamicinformation identifier of a wide variety of nutritional substances withhis smartphone, and the application can communicate with the nutritionalsubstance information module to determine a current ΔN, and predict theΔN of the nutritional substance when stored in the corresponding localstorage environment or local storage container. In other embodiments,the consumer may place the milk, on a scale or other weight measurementdevice that allows the consumer to determine the current ΔN based on theweight of the milk left in the carton and the dynamic informationidentifier. For instance, the scale may have its own reader, or may bewirelessly connected to a smartphone that reads the identifier, andsends the data to a remote server or directly to the scale to combinewith the weight data to determine the current ΔN.

FIG. 11 is a graph showing the function of how a nutritional,organoleptic, or aesthetic value of a nutritional substance varies overa change in time and multiple changes in a second condition, the storagetemperature of the nutritional substance. It is understood that changein time and change in storage temperature are offered by way of example,and are in no way limiting to the types on condition changes to whichthe present inventions may be applied. In this example, the change in anutritional property of potato salad is shown over a period of timeincluding its preservation at the supermarket and a subsequent period oftime including its local storage in a consumer's refrigerator, which isa local storage environment according to the present invention, andsubsequent storage in the consumer's picnic cooler, which contains alocal storage coupon according to the present invention. The graph showsthat the potato salad is preserved at a first temperature, Temperature1, for a first period of time indicated as 0 to 1, while at thesupermarket. The potato salad is purchased by a consumer at time 1, andsubsequently stored at a second temperature, Temperature 2, for a secondperiod of time indicated as 1 to 2, during local storage in theconsumer's refrigerator, which is a local storage environment accordingto the present invention. It is noted that Temperature 2 is greater thanTemperature 1, and accordingly the shape of the graph changes at point Awhen the potato salad is taken from Temperature 1 and stored atTemperature 2. As in the preservation module, the local storageenvironment can identify the potato salad stored within it by reading orscanning its dynamic information identifier (or by the consumer enteringit), can communicate with the nutritional substance information module,and accordingly can determine the potato salad's ΔN prior to placementwithin the refrigerator, and continue to track the potato salad's ΔNwhile in the refrigerator. The refrigerator is provided with a consumerinterface, such as a screen, keyboard, sound system, or any knownconsumer interface. Alternatively, an application on the consumer'ssmartphone can enable the refrigerator to communicate with thesmartphone such that the smartphone acts as the consumer interface. Theconsumer interface enables the refrigerator to communicate to theconsumer that it contains the particular container of potato salad,information related to ΔN, including current nutritional, organoleptic,and aesthetic values of the potato salad while stored in therefrigerator. At time 2, the potato salad is taken from the refrigeratorand placed inside the consumer's traditional picnic cooler, along with acoupon according to the present invention, where it is stored atTemperature 3, for a period of time indicated as 2 to 4. It is notedthat Temperature 3 is greater than Temperature 2, and accordingly theshape of the graph changes at point B when the potato salad is takenfrom Temperature 2 and stored at Temperature 3. The local storage couponcan identify the potato salad stored within it by reading or scanningits dynamic information identifier (or by the consumer entering it), cancommunicate with the nutritional substance information module, andaccordingly can determine the potato salad's ΔN prior to placementwithin the cooler, and continue to track the potato salad's ΔN while inthe cooler. The coupon is provided with a consumer interface, such as ascreen, keyboard, sound system, or any known consumer interface, oralternatively, an application on the consumer's smartphone can enablethe coupon to communicate with the smartphone such that the smartphoneacts as the consumer interface. The consumer interface enables thecoupon to communicate to the consumer that the cooler contains theparticular container of potato salad, information related to ΔN,including current nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values of thepotato salad while stored in the cooler, and when the potato salad willreach a minimum acceptable nutritional, organoleptic, or aestheticvalue, indicated by “Minimum” on the vertical axis of the graph. Theminimum acceptable values may be automatically provided by theinformation module, may be provided by the consumer through the consumerinterface, or may be the higher of the two values. In this case theconsumer can see how the nutritional value of the potato salad hasdegraded prior to placing it in the cooler with the coupon, and cancontinue to see how the nutritional value degrades during local storagein the cooler, and when it will reach its minimum acceptable nutritionalvalue. For example, at the time indicated as 3, the consumer candetermine the residual nutritional value of the potato salad,corresponding to point C and “Residual” on the vertical axis of thegraph. Further, the consumer can determine the potato salad'snutritional value will reach a minimum acceptable level at time 4, asindicated by “Minimum” on the vertical axis of the graph, thus knowingthe window of time in which the potato salad in the cooler will maintainan acceptable nutritional level, as indicated by time 2 to 4. Further,the coupon can notify the consumer through the consumer interface whenthe potato salad's nutritional value has reached or fallen below theminimum acceptable value.

In some embodiments the nutritional substance, for example turkey, maybe removed from the local storage or coupon and a portion of thenutritional substance placed on a scale, or another appliance thatincludes a weight measurement apparatus to sense the weight of theamount nutritional substance, and display ΔN information relating tothat amount. In other embodiments, the local storage may contain aweight measurement apparatus. This allows the consumer to determine ΔNinformation for a portion of the nutritional substance the consumer mayplan on eating that is less than the entire portion stored or purchased.For example, an oven or microwave may be provided that allows a consumerto place a portion of the turkey in the oven or microwave, and a scaleor other weight measurement apparatus may be included that determinesthe amount of turkey removed, and ΔN information for that turkey. Insome embodiments, the oven or microwave may then communicate differentconditioning or cooking options that result in different ΔNs based oninformation in the database regarding cooking or conditioning regimes.For example, microwaving the turkey at a lower temperature for longermay retain more of the amino acid chains in a non-denatured andnutritionally viable form than microwaving the turkey at the highestsetting for a short time. Accordingly, these different conditioningoptions may be displayed to the consumer together with the resultant ΔNsfor each option and the final nutritional values that would result fromselecting each option. This may also include the choice for the consumerregarding the type (e.g. oven or microwave) of conditioning and theassociated ΔNs that would result from those options. In addition, theseΔNs may be displayed to the consumer as graphs.

It is understood that local storage environments according to thepresent invention can comprise any local storage environment for anutritional substance provided with the features enabling it to identifya dynamic information identifier on the nutritional substance, track oneor more conditions related to a ΔN of the nutritional substance,communicate with the nutritional substance information module, determinea current ΔN, such as by the use of any known environmental ornutritional substance attribute sensor including a weight measurementsensor or scale, track and predict the ΔN of the nutritional substancewhile stored therein, and communicate information related to the ΔN to aconsumer. In some embodiments, a standalone scale may be provided forremoving the nutritional substance from the local storage environmentand determining the weight of all or a portion of the nutritionalsubstance in preparation for conditioning or consumption in order todetermine the ΔN of the portion of nutritional substance removed fromthe local storage environment. Examples of such local storageenvironments include, but are not limited to: a pantry capable ofidentifying a dynamic information identifier on canned or bottled goodsand tracking one or more conditions related to a ΔN of the canned orbottled goods, such as time, storage temperature, and weight; a shelfcapable of identifying a dynamic information identifier on dry goods andtracking one or more conditions related to a ΔN of the dry goods, suchas time, storage humidity and weight; a vegetable bin capable ofidentifying a dynamic information identifier on vegetables and trackingone or more conditions related to a ΔN of the vegetables, such as time,storage temperature, gaseous or volatile emissions from the vegetables,color of the vegetables, weight, and storage humidity; a drawer capableof identifying a dynamic information identifier on fruit and trackingone or more conditions related to a ΔN of the fruit, such as time,storage temperature, gaseous or volatile emissions from the fruit,weight, color of the fruit, and exposure to light; a medicine cabinetcapable of identifying a dynamic information identifier on medicamentsand tracking one or more conditions related to a ΔN of the medicaments,such as time, storage temperature, storage humidity, weight and exposureto light; a standalone scale capable of identifying a dynamicinformation identifier on a nutritional substance or opticallyidentifying the substance itself and determining the weight of thenutritional substance in order to calculate a ΔN. These local storageenvironments or standalone scales may be provided with a consumerinterface, such as a screen, keyboard, sound system, or any knownconsumer interface. Standalone scales include any freestandingelectronic scale that is capable of detecting the weight of anutritional substance and outputting that weight to the nutritionalsubstance information module 100 or other components of the system todetermine a ΔN and display that a ΔN to the consumer. In someembodiments weight or mass determination may be utilized by an opticalobject recognition system, in place of or in addition to a scale. Forexample, various products are available capable using optical technologyto visually identify produce and other nutritional substances, andvarious other items. For example, an automated optical fruit recognitionsystem developed by Fraunhofer is capable of detecting and identifyingvarious produce optically as described by an article titled “AutomatedFruit Recognition” available athttp://www.isob.fraunhofer.de/servlet/is/33328/ which is incorporated byreference herein in its entirety. Accordingly, a user could then utilizetheir mobile phone or other devices with optical sensors to identifynutritional substances. Additionally, an optical object recognitionsystem is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,310,964 that is described ascapable of detecting identity of produce and is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety

An application on the consumer's smartphone can enable these localstorage environments or standalone scales to communicate with thesmartphone such that the smartphone acts as the consumer interface. Theconsumer interface enables the local storage environment or standalonescale to communicate to the consumer that it contains a particularnutritional substance, information related to its ΔN including a ΔNbased on the weight of the nutritional substance, including currentnutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values of the nutritionalsubstance while stored in the local storage environment. In someembodiments, the local storage environment may be placed directly on thescale in order to determine the weight of the nutritional substanceinside the local storage environment.

It is understood that local storage containers according to the presentinvention can comprise any local storage container for a nutritionalsubstance provided with the features enabling it to identify a dynamicinformation identifier on the nutritional substance, track one or moreconditions related to a ΔN of the nutritional substance, communicatewith the nutritional substance information module, determine a currentΔN, such as by the use of any known environmental or nutritionalsubstance attribute sensor, track and predict the ΔN of the nutritionalsubstance while stored therein, and communicate information related tothe ΔN to a consumer. Examples of such local storage containers include,but are not limited to: a plastic, sealable container capable ofidentifying a dynamic information identifier on dry goods and trackingone or more conditions related to a ΔN of the dry goods, such as time,gaseous or volatile emissions from the dry goods, weight, color of thedry goods, and storage humidity; a tray capable of identifying a dynamicinformation identifier on fruit and tracking one or more conditionsrelated to a ΔN of the fruit, such as time, gaseous or volatileemissions from the fruit, color of the fruit, weight, storagetemperature, and exposure to light; a resealable bag capable ofidentifying a dynamic information identifier on vegetables and trackingone or more conditions related to a ΔN of the vegetables, such as time,storage temperature, gaseous or volatile emissions from the vegetables,color of the vegetables, and storage humidity; a purse capable ofidentifying a dynamic information identifier on a medicament andtracking one or more conditions related to a ΔN of the medicament, suchas time, storage temperature, storage humidity, and exposure to light; apicnic cooler capable of identifying a dynamic information identifier onpotato salad and tracking one or more conditions related to a ΔN of thepotato salad, such as time, gaseous or volatile emissions from thepotato salad, weight, color of the potato salad, and storagetemperature. These local storage containers may be provided with aconsumer interface, such as a screen, keyboard, sound system, or anyknown consumer interface. Alternatively, an application on theconsumer's smartphone can enable these local storage containers tocommunicate with the smartphone such that the smartphone acts as theconsumer interface. The consumer interface enables the local storagecontainer to communicate to the consumer that it contains a particularnutritional substance, information related to its ΔN, including currentnutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values of the nutritionalsubstance while stored in the local storage container.

It is understood that local storage coupons according to the presentinvention can comprise any form of tag, badge, transponder, label, orany other device, individually and collectively referred to herein as acoupon, placed in proximity to a traditional local storage environmentor traditional local storage container, and capable of identifying adynamic information identifier on a nutritional substance stored in thetraditional local storage environment or traditional local storagecontainer, tracking one or more conditions related to a ΔN of thenutritional substance, communicating with the nutritional substanceinformation module, determining a current ΔN, such as by the use of anyknown environmental or nutritional substance attribute sensor, trackingand predicting the ΔN of the nutritional substance, and communicatinginformation related to the ΔN to a consumer. Examples of such localstorage coupons include, but are not limited to: a coupon placed in aplastic container with dry goods, wherein the coupon is capable ofidentifying a dynamic information identifier on dry goods and trackingone or more conditions related to a ΔN of the dry goods, such as time,gaseous or volatile emissions from the dry goods, color of the drygoods, weight, and storage humidity; a coupon placed on a tray forholding fruit, wherein the coupon is capable of identifying a dynamicinformation identifier on fruit and tracking one or more conditionsrelated to a ΔN of the fruit, such as time, storage temperature, gaseousor volatile emissions from the fruit, color of the fruit, and exposureto light; a coupon placed within a resealable vegetable bag, wherein thecoupon is capable of identifying a dynamic information identifier onvegetables and tracking one or more conditions related to a ΔN of thevegetables, such as time, storage temperature, gaseous or volatileemissions from the vegetables, weight, color of the vegetables, andstorage humidity; a coupon placed within a purse, wherein the coupon iscapable of identifying a dynamic information identifier on a medicamentplaced within the purse and tracking one or more conditions related to aΔN of the medicament, such as time, storage temperature, storagehumidity, and exposure to light; a coupon attached to the inner surfaceof a picnic cooler, wherein the coupon is capable of identifying adynamic information identifier on potato salad stored in the cooler andtracking one or more conditions related to a ΔN of the potato salad,such as time, gaseous or volatile emissions from the potato salad, colorof the potato salad, and storage temperature; a coupon hung in a pantry,wherein the coupon is capable of identifying a dynamic informationidentifier on canned or bottled goods and tracking one or moreconditions related to a ΔN of the canned or bottled goods, such as time,exposure to light (in the case of bottled goods), and storagetemperature; a coupon attached to a shelf, wherein the coupon is capableof identifying a dynamic information identifier on dry goods andtracking one or more conditions related to a ΔN of the dry goods, suchas time, gaseous or volatile emissions from the dry goods, color of thedry goods, weight, and storage humidity; a coupon attached to an innersurface of a vegetable bin, wherein the coupon is capable of identifyinga dynamic information identifier on vegetables and tracking one or moreconditions related to a ΔN of the vegetables, such as time, gaseous orvolatile emissions from the vegetables, weight, color of the vegetables,storage temperature, and storage humidity; a coupon placed within adrawer, wherein the coupon is capable of identifying a dynamicinformation identifier on fruit and tracking one or more conditionsrelated to a ΔN of the fruit, such as time, gaseous or volatileemissions from the fruit, color of the fruit, storage temperature, andexposure to light; a coupon attached to the inner surface of a medicinecabinet, wherein the coupon is capable of identifying a dynamicinformation identifier on medicaments and track one or more conditionsrelated to a ΔN of the medicaments, such as time, storage temperature,storage humidity, and exposure to light.

In FIG. 1, Creation module 200 can dynamically encode nutritionalsubstances to enable the tracking of changes in nutritional,organoleptic, and/or aesthetic value of the nutritional substance, orΔN. This dynamic encoding, also referred to herein as a dynamicinformation identifier, can replace and/or complement existingnutritional substance marking systems such as barcodes, labels, and/orink markings. This dynamic encoding, or dynamic information identifier,can be used to make nutritional substance information from creationmodule 200 available to information module 100 for use by preservationmodule 300, transformation module 400, conditioning module 500, and/orconsumption module 600, which includes the ultimate consumer of thenutritional substance. One method of marking the nutritional substancewith a dynamic information identifier by creation module 200, or anyother module in nutritional supply system 10, could include anelectronic tagging system, such as the tagging system manufactured byKovio of San Jose, Calif., USA. Such thin film chips can be used notonly for tracking nutritional substances, but can include components tomeasure attributes of nutritional substances, and record and transmitsuch information. Such information may be readable by a reader includinga satellite-based system. Such a satellite-based nutritional substanceinformation tracking system could comprise a network of satellites withcoverage of some or all the surface of the earth, so as to allow thedynamic nutritional value database of information module 100 real time,or near real time updates about a ΔN of a particular nutritional substance.

Preservation module 300 includes packers and shippers of nutritionalsubstances. The tracking of changes in nutritional, organoleptic, and/oraesthetic values, or a ΔN, during the preservation period withinpreservation module 300 allows for dynamic expiration dates fornutritional substances. For example, expiration dates for dairy productsare currently based generally only on time using assumptions regardingminimal conditions at which dairy products are maintained. Thisextrapolated expiration date is based on a worst-case scenario for whenthe product becomes unsafe to consume during the preservation period. Inreality, the degradation of dairy products may be significantly lessthan this worst-case. If preservation module 300 could measure or derivethe actual degradation information such as ΔN, an actual expirationdate, referred to herein as a dynamic expiration date, can be determineddynamically, and could be significantly later in time than anextrapolated expiration date. This would allow the nutritional substancesupply system to dispose of fewer products due to expiration dates. Thisability to dynamically generate expiration dates for nutritionalsubstances is of particular significance when nutritional substancescontain few or no preservatives. Such products are highly valuedthroughout nutritional substance supply system 10, including consumerswho are willing to pay a premium for nutritional substances with few orno preservatives.

It should be noted that a dynamic expiration date need not be indicatednumerically (i.e., as a numerical date) but could be indicatedsymbolically as by the use of colors—such as green, yellow and redemployed on semaphores—or other designations. In those instances, thedynamic expiration date would not be interpreted literally but, rather,as a dynamically-determined advisory date. In practice a dynamicexpiration date will be provided for at least one component of a singleor multi-component nutritional substance. For multi-componentnutritional substances, the dynamic expiration date could be interpretedas a “best” date for consumption for particular components.

By law, in many localities, food processors such as those intransformation module 400 are required to provide nutritional substanceinformation regarding their products. Often, this information takes theform of a nutritional table applied to the packaging of the nutritionalsubstance. Currently, the information in this nutritional table is basedon averages or minimums for their typical product. Using the nutritionalsubstance information from information module 100 provided by creationmodule 200, preservation module 300, and/or information from thetransformation of the nutritional substance by transformation module400, and consumer feedback and updates related to ΔN, preferablyobtained through or provided by local storage environments, appliances,scales and other weight measurement devices, local storage containers,and local storage coupons according to the present invention, the foodprocessor could include a dynamically generated nutritional value table,also referred to herein as a dynamic nutritional value table, for theactual nutritional substance being supplied to a consumer and furtherbeing locally stored by the consumer. The information in such a dynamicnutritional value table could be used by conditioning module 500 in thepreparation of the nutritional substance, and/or used by consumptionmodule 600, so as to allow the ultimate consumer the ability to selectthe most desirable nutritional substance which meets their needs, and/orto track information regarding nutritional substances consumed.

Information about changes in nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aestheticvalues of nutritional substances, or ΔN, is particularly useful in theconditioning module 500 of the present invention, as it allows knowing,or estimating, the pre-conditioning state of the nutritional,organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of the nutritional substance,including the changes in nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aestheticvalues occurring during local storage of the nutritional substance, andfurther allows for estimation of a ΔN associated with proposedconditioning parameters. The conditioning module 500 can thereforecreate conditioning parameters, such as by modifying existing orbaseline conditioning parameters, to deliver desired nutritional,organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values after conditioning. Thepre-conditioning state of the nutritional, organoleptic, and/oraesthetic value of a nutritional substance is not tracked or provided tothe consumer by existing conditioners, nor is the ΔN expected from aproposed conditioning tracked or provided to the consumer either beforeor after conditioning. However, using information provided byinformation module 100 from creation module 200, preservation module300, transformation module 400, and consumer feedback and updatesrelated to ΔN, preferably obtained through or provided by local storageenvironments, local storage containers, and local storage couponsaccording to the present invention, and/or information measured orgenerated by conditioning module 500 prior to conditioning, and/orconsumer input provided through the conditioning module 500 prior toconditioning, conditioning module 500 could provide the consumer withadaptively developed conditioning parameters responsive to the currentΔN of the nutritional substance and the consumer's input, and theestimated or expected ΔN that will result from the adaptive conditioningparameters, and the corresponding residual nutritional, organoleptic, oraesthetic value.

In a further embodiment, the conditioner is provided with varioussensors which can be used to sense attributes of a nutritional substanceprior to conditioning, wherein the sensed attribute values can be usedin determining a current ΔN or corresponding residual nutritional,organoleptic, or aesthetic value of the nutritional substance. In yet afurther embodiment, some or all of the various sensors can be used tosense attributes of the nutritional substance during conditioning, so asto determine intra-conditioning ΔN information regarding the nutritionalsubstance during its conditioning. Such intra-conditioning ΔNinformation provides closed loop feedback to the conditioner'scontroller regarding the adaptive conditioning parameters beingimplemented. If the closed-loop feedback indicates that the adaptiveconditioning parameters will achieve desired residual nutritional,organoleptic, and aesthetic values, the conditioner's controller willcontinue to implement the adaptive conditioning parameters. However, ifthe closed-loop feedback indicates that the adaptive conditioningparameters will not achieve desired residual nutritional, organoleptic,and aesthetic values, the conditioner's controller will modify theadaptive conditioning parameters and implement the modified adaptiveconditioning parameters. In the same fashion, the sensors can continueto provide closed-loop feedback to indicate that currently implementedconditioning parameters will, or will not, achieve desired residualnutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values, and accordingly, theconditioner may continue to implement the current conditioningparameters, or modify the current conditioning parameters and implementthe modified parameters.

An important benefit provided by local storage environments, localstorage containers, and local storage coupons of the present inventionis that consumer feedback and updates related to ΔN, such as observed ormeasured information of, or related to, a ΔN during local storage of thenutritional substance is obtained through, or provided by, the localstorage environments, containers, and coupons. In this way consumerfeedback and updates related to a ΔN during local storage of anutritional substance can play a role in updating the dynamicnutritional value information about the nutritional substances consumershave purchased and placed in local storage, such as through modificationof ΔN. Such information regarding the change to nutritional,organoleptic and/or aesthetic value of the nutritional substance, or ΔN,could be provided not only to a consumer through the consumption module600 and conditioning module 500, but could also be provided toinformation module 100 for use by creation module 200, preservationmodule 300, transformation module 400, so as to track, and possiblyimprove nutritional substances throughout the entire nutritionalsubstance supply system 10.

In a further embodiment, the local storage environments, local storagecontainers, scales, and local storage coupons are provided with variousnutritional substance attribute sensors which can be used to senseattributes of a nutritional substance prior to local storage, whereinthe sensed attribute data can be used in determining the nutritionalsubstance content and an initial nutritional, organoleptic, or aestheticvalue of the nutritional substance, such as when the nutritionalsubstance is placed into the local storage environment or container. Inyet a further embodiment, some or all of the various nutritionalsubstance attribute sensors can be used to sense attributes of thenutritional substance during local storage, so as to determineintra-local storage ΔN information regarding the nutritional substanceduring its local storage. In a case wherein the local storageenvironment or container is provided with a controller which can modifythe storage parameters, so as to modify the storage conditions, of thelocal storage environment or container, such intra-local storage ΔNinformation can provide closed loop feedback to the local storagecontroller regarding the currently implemented storage parameters. Inthis way, if the closed-loop feedback indicates that the currentlyimplemented storage parameters will achieve desired rates of change inresidual nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values, the controllerwill continue to implement the currently implemented storage parameters.Such desired rates of change in residual nutritional, organoleptic, andaesthetic values may be predetermined, such as by the nutritionalsubstance provider, may be determined by consumer input, such asprovided through a consumer interface of the local storage environment,container, or coupon, or may be established in any known fashion. If theclosed-loop feedback indicates that the currently implemented parameterswill not achieve desired rates of change in residual nutritional,organoleptic, and aesthetic values, the controller will adaptivelymodify the storage parameters and implement the adaptively modifiedstorage parameters. In the same fashion, the sensors can continue toprovide closed-loop feedback to the controller regarding any currentstorage parameters, and depending upon whether the current storageparameters will, or will not, achieve desired rates of change inresidual nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values, the controllermay continue to implement the current storage parameters, or adaptivelymodify the current storage parameters and implement the adaptivelymodified storage parameters.

In the embodiment above, the local storage environments, containers,scales, and coupons are provided with the ability to communicate thesensed attribute data with an alternate database that facilitatesidentification of the nutritional substance content and currentnutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value. The alternate databaseconsists of a massive library of nutritional substance attribute data,related to the visual appearance, taste, smell, texture, touch, chemicalcomposition and any other known physical attributes, referenced tocorresponding nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic states of knownnutritional substances, and is herein referred to as the nutritionalsubstance attribute library. The various nutritional substance attributesensors may include, but are not limited to, sensors capable ofmeasuring and collecting data regarding visual appearance, taste, smell,volatiles, texture, touch, sound, chemical composition, temperature,weight, volume, density, hardness, viscosity, surface tension, and anyother known physical attribute of the nutritional substance. These mayinclude, but are not limited to, optical sensors, spectrometers,biosensors, laser sensors, cameras, electric noses, microphones,olfactory sensors, surface topography measurement equipment, threedimensional measuring equipment, chemical assays, hardness measuringequipment, ultrasound equipment, impedance detectors, temperaturemeasuring equipment, weight measurement equipment including scales, andany known sensor capable of providing data regarding a physicalattribute of a nutritional substance. It is understood that such localstorage environments, containers, and coupons may also be provided witha nutritional substance reader, such that they can interact withnutritional substances provided with, and without, dynamic informationidentifiers. The nutritional substance attribute library may be separatefrom a nutritional substance industry database, or is preferably part ofthe nutritional substance industry database. Further, the nutritionalsubstance attribute library may be separate from a nutritional substancedatabase, or may exist within the nutritional substance database. In apreferred embodiment, the nutritional substance attribute librarycoexists with the nutritional substance database, a recipe database, anda consumer database, within the nutritional substance industry database.

The information regarding nutritional substances provided by informationmodule 100 to consumption module 600 can replace or complement existinginformation sources such as recipe books, food databases likewww.epicurious.com, and Epicurious apps. Through the use of specificinformation regarding a nutritional substance from information module100, consumers can use consumption module 600 to select nutritionalsubstances according to nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aestheticvalues. This will further allow consumers to make informed decisionsregarding nutritional substance additives, preservatives, geneticmodifications, origins, traceability, and other nutritional substanceattributes that may also be tracked through the information module 100.This information can be provided by consumption module 600 throughpersonal computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, and/orsmartphones. Software running on these devices can include dedicatedcomputer programs, modules within general programs, and/or smartphoneapps. An example of such a smartphone app regarding nutritionalsubstances is the iOS ShopNoGMO from the Institute for ResponsibleTechnology. This iPhone app allows consumers access to informationregarding non-genetically modified organisms they may select.Additionally, consumption module 600 may provide information for theconsumer to operate conditioning module 500 in such a manner as tooptimize nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of anutritional substance and/or component nutritional substances thereof,according to the consumer's needs or preference or according to targetvalues established by the provider of the nutritional substance, such asthe transformer, and/or minimize degradation of, preserve, or improvenutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic value of a nutritionalsubstance and/or component nutritional substances thereof.

Through the use of nutritional substance information available frominformation module 100 nutritional substance supply system 10 can tracknutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic value. Using thisinformation, nutritional substances travelling through nutritionalsubstance supply system 10 can be dynamically valued and pricedaccording to nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values. Forexample, nutritional substances with longer dynamic expiration dates(longer shelf life) may be more highly valued than nutritionalsubstances with shorter expiration dates. Additionally, nutritionalsubstances with higher nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aestheticvalues may be more highly valued, not just by the consumer, but also byeach entity within nutritional substance supply system 10. This isbecause each entity will want to start with a nutritional substance withhigher nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic value before itperforms its function and passes the nutritional substance along to thenext entity. Therefore, both the starting nutritional, organoleptic,and/or aesthetic value and the ΔN associated with those values areimportant factors in determining or estimating an actual, or residual,nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic value of a nutritionalsubstance, and accordingly are important factors in establishingdynamically valued and priced nutritional substances.

The use of appliances, local storage environments, local storagecontainers, scales, and local storage coupons according to the presentinvention makes information related to a ΔN of a locally storednutritional substance available to information module 100, so thatinformation available from information module 100 can enable a consumer,or any entity inside or outside the nutritional substance supply system10, to track nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic value of thenutritional substance during its local storage or prior to consumptionor conditioning. It is understood that such local storage includes localstorage by any entity that prepares or otherwise conditions nutritionalsubstances for consumption by a consumer, and could include theconsumer's residence, a restaurant, a hospital, a sports arena, avending machine, or any other known entity providing nutritionalsubstances for consumption.

Additionally, the use of appliances that can display or calculatecurrent ΔN information based on sensed attributes, including weight,allow a consumer to determine the current ΔN of a portion of the storednutritional substance prior to conditioning or consumption. This abilitymay be incorporated into any appliance, or may be as a standalone scaleor weight measurement apparatus, with a dynamic information identifierreader, or the ability wirelessly link with a consumer's smartphone.Additionally, the weight measurement device or sensors may beincorporated into ovens, smartovens, microwaves, refrigerators, or anyother appliance.

During the period of implementation of the present inventions, therewill be nutritional substances being marketed including those benefitingfrom the tracking of dynamic nutritional information such as ΔN, alsoreferred to herein as information-enabled nutritional substances, andnutritional substances which do not benefit from the tracking of dynamicnutritional information such as ΔN, which are not information enabledand are referred to herein as dumb nutritional substances.Information-enabled nutritional substances would be available in virtualinternet marketplaces, as well as traditional marketplaces. Because ofinformation provided by information-enabled nutritional substances,entities within the nutritional substance supply system 10, includingconsumers, would be able to review and select information-enablednutritional substances for purchase. It should be expected that,initially, the information-enabled nutritional substances would enjoy ahigher market value and price than dumb nutritional substances. However,as information-enabled nutritional substances become more the norm, thecost savings from less waste due to degradation of information-enablednutritional substances could lead to their price actually becoming lessthan dumb nutritional substances.

For example, the producer of a ready-to-eat dinner would prefer to usecorn of a high nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic value in theproduction of its product, the ready-to-eat dinner, so as to produce apremium product of high nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aestheticvalue. Depending upon the levels of the nutritional, organoleptic,and/or aesthetic values, the ready-to-eat dinner producer may be able tocharge a premium price and/or differentiate its product from that ofother producers. When selecting the corn to be used in the ready-to-eatdinner, the producer will seek corn of high nutritional, organoleptic,and/or aesthetic value from preservation module 300 that meets itsrequirements for nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic value. Thepackager/shipper of preservation module 300 would also be able to chargea premium for corn which has high nutritional, organoleptic, and/oraesthetic values. And finally, the packager/shipper of preservationmodule 300 will select corn of high nutritional, organoleptic, and/oraesthetic value from the grower of creation module 200, who will also beable to charge a premium for corn of high nutritional, organoleptic,and/or aesthetic values.

Further, the consumer of the ready-to-eat dinner may want to, or in thecase of a restaurant, cafeteria, or other regulated eatingestablishment, may be required to, track the nutritional, organoleptic,and/or aesthetic value of the corn during the local storage of theready-to-eat dinner. The local storage environments, local storagecontainers, and local storage coupons of the present invention enablesuch tracking by making information related to ΔN during local storageavailable to information module 100 for updating the dynamicnutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values of a nutritionalsubstance.

The change to nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic value for anutritional substance, or ΔN, tracked through nutritional substancesupply system 10 through nutritional substance information frominformation module 100 can be preferably determined from measuredinformation. However, some or all such nutritional substance ΔNinformation may be derived through measurements of environmentalconditions of the nutritional substance as it traveled throughnutritional substance supply system 10. Additionally, some or all of thenutritional substance ΔN information can be derived from ΔN data ofother nutritional substances which have traveled through nutritionalsubstance supply system 10. Nutritional substance ΔN information canalso be derived from laboratory experiments performed on othernutritional substances, which may approximate conditions and/orprocesses to which the actual nutritional substance has been exposed.This information may be utilized to estimate ΔN for a presentnutritional substance 520 prior to conditioning by determine the averageΔN for the nutritional substance 520 for a given conditioning protocolor for the passage of a certain amount of time. In some embodiments,this may include determining an average ΔN per unit weight of thenutritional substance 520. Then, when a consumer 540 or other end userselects a nutritional substance 520 for conditioning, the weight of thenutritional substance 520 may be detected or provided by a dynamicnutritional identifier, and the ΔN per unit weight may be multiplied bythe sensed or provided weight of the nutritional substance 520. That waya total ΔN may be output that is assumed to result to the presentnutritional substance 520 based on selected conditioning protocol. Inother embodiments, the nutritional substance 520 testing will be with apre-packaged food that is the same weight or mass in every package andso the ΔN will not vary by weight. In still other embodiments, the ΔNmay be determined for a range of conditioning protocols, but not everypossible conditioning (or transformation) protocol for a givennutritional substance 520. Accordingly, if the end user is able toselect a range of preferences, the system may have to extrapolatebetween two or more prior data points to determine an estimated ΔN forthe specific conditioning protocol selected for the nutritionalsubstance 520. For example, if a consumer decides to cook 16 ounces ofsalmon, and decides to have it medium well, the oven may be set at 12minutes at 350 degrees. However, the system may only have experimentaldelta N for 12 ounces of salmon at 310 degrees and 18 ounces of salmonat 360 degrees. Accordingly, the system may either provide a curve orcorrelation line between tested data points and associated ΔN s todetermine the present ΔN for the specific conditioning or transformationprotocol selected for the piece of salmon. In other embodiments, othersuitable methods may be utilized using experimental data to estimate ΔN.

In some embodiments, in order for the system to determine an estimatedΔN, the system may have access to data relating to the percentagereduction in certain vitamins, water, fat content or other ΔN values forgiven conditioning protocols 610. Those ΔN values may then be applied toa specific nutritional substance 520 as an estimate for the ΔN. Forexample, if the percentage reduction for a given nutritional substance520 is known, then the ΔN values that could be calculated for a givenprotocol could be recorded as percentages. If a specific nutritionalsubstance 520 includes a dynamic information identifier that includesthe weight of the nutritional substance 520, the percentages can bemultiplied by an average starting nutritional content for a specificnutrient or the amount of that nutrient indicated by a dynamicinformation identifier to determine the amount of a specific nutrientafter conditioning and the loss of that nutrient.

The prior ΔN values may be determined in a variety of ways including:experimentation with specific conditioning protocols 610 on nutritionalsubstances 520. This would allow one to provide more accurate andspecific measures of ΔN values for specific conditioning protocols 610.Additionally, if data for ΔN is recorded for variations of theconditioning protocol 610 then the system may be able to more easilyextrapolate ΔN values to determine a modified ΔN value for aconditioning protocol 610 with only slight modifications (i.e. certaintimes extended or cycles removed or added) as described above.

In other embodiments, prior ΔN values for similar nutritional substances520 may be derived from the USDA's website, where tables of changes innutritional content are presented. The USDA's values for changes innutritional content are generally based on one recipe for each type ofconditioning. For example, an example table from the USDA website isshown in FIG. 15. Specifically, FIG. 15 illustrates values of nutrientsretained after cooking various nutritional substances 520 using ageneralized conditioning protocol 610 (e.g., bake, broil, reheated,etc.). For example, nutritional retention values for cheese aredisplayed based on baking, broiling, cooking with liquid and reheatingcheese. Across the columns, various nutrients are listed and the tabledisplays the percentage retention of each nutrient based on, forexample, a generic “BAKED” protocol 610.

As further examples, FIGS. 16-17 illustrate bar graphs indicating thenutritional retention using various different conditioning protocols 610for vegetable stir fry (FIG. 16) and chicken (FIG. 17). As can be seenfrom the figures, the retention profile for different types of cookingcan vary widely between conditioning methods, and therefore displayingor allowing consumers choices in how to condition their food may bebeneficial. For example, the vitamin C retention after cooking greenswill vary from 56% if they are boiled, to 85% if they are stir fried.Accordingly, in that case, a consumer may be able to balance the cookingmethod they prefer for taste between the two, and whether vitaminretention is more important with respect to specific nutrients.

The USDA's generic protocols 610 are defined by the USDA and used toperform experiments to derive the values they publish for nutrientretention. The USDA accordingly utilizes a basic protocol for each ofthe baking, broiling, and other conditioning types mentioned, and testsvarious examples of the broad nutritional substance 520 category, (e.g.cheese) in order to determine an average for retention of certainnutrients. To calculate these data points, the USDA utilized equation(1) to calculate the percent retention:TR=(N _(c) *G _(c))/(N _(r) *G _(r))*100  (1)

where TR=true retention, N_(c)=nutrient content per gram of cooked food,G_(c)=grams of cooked food, N_(r)=nutrient content per g of raw food,and G_(r)=grams of food before cooking. This equation is then utilizedby the USDA as detailed on its website, for example athttp://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/12354500/Data/SR26/sr26doc.pdf as part of the National Nutrient Database for StandardReference. Accordingly, these data points can be used as rough estimatesfor the ΔN experienced by specific nutritional substances 520 andspecific conditioning protocols 610. In this embodiment, each specificconditioning protocol 610 that is stored in the database of the systemwould have to be linked or referenced to one of the basic conditioningprotocols 610 for which the USDA has data. Accordingly, a prospectiveconditioning protocol 610 would be assumed to result in a ΔN associatedwith the general recipe it is linked to.

In further embodiments, to true retention, the percentage of weightretained after conditioning may also be calculated as yield percentagebased on the following equation 2 from the USDA:Yield (%)=100×(W _(ch) /W _(cr))  (2)

Where yield is the percentage of weight retained after conditioning,W_(ch) is the weight of the cooked sample while hot, and W_(cr) is theweight of the raw sample to be cooked. Accordingly, this is one exampleof the change in weight can be estimated for a specific nutritionalsubstance 520 based on an average for that nutritional substance 520 bymultiplying the average percent yield by the weight of the specificnutritional substance 520. For example, if a nutritional substance 520is provided with a dynamic nutrition identifier that includes the weightof the substance 520, the weight of the substance may be multiplied bythe percent yield calculated for a specific conditioning protocol 610 todetermine an estimate for the reduction in weight that the nutritionalsubstance 520 will experience after cooking. Accordingly, this value maybe utilized in conjunction with the moisture/fat change values ofequation 3 from the USDA to determine overall reduction in nutritionaland other ΔN values:Moisture/Fat Change (%)=100×((N _(c) *E _(c))−(N _(r) *E _(r)))/W_(cr)  (3)

where N_(c) is the nutrient content of the cooked sample (lean or edibleportion) (i.e. fat or moisture), N_(r) is the nutrient content of theraw sample (lean or edible portion) (i.e. fat or moisture), E_(c) is theedible portion of the cooked sample, E_(r) is the edible portion of theraw sample, W_(cr) is the weight of the cooked sample while hot, andW_(cr) is the weight of the raw sample to be cooked. Accordingly, themoisture/fat change % can be determined through experimentation and canbe used to determine an estimated moisture and/or fat reduction for aparticular nutritional substance 520 based on a particular conditioningprotocol 610. These equations are disclosed by the USDA and utilized todetermine their experimental based averages for changes in nutritionalvalues. Similar equations may be utilized to determine precise changesfor specific nutritional substances (e.g. 3 year aged cheddar v. cheese)based specific conditioning protocols (bake for 3 minutes then steam v.bake). Sample data in connection with cooking yields is shown in FIG.18.

Once these values are determined, these values could be displayedalongside choices for conditioning to allow a consumer to determine theoptimal conditioning protocol based on their nutritional and tastepreferences. As in the case with the USDA data, this specificexperimental data may be referenced to the conditioning protocols in adatabase or using another system in order for the ΔN values to beproperly accessed or associated with specific conditioning protocols 610available to a user on a specific conditioner. In some embodiments, asdisclosed herein, these estimated ΔN values may be utilized to deriveconditioning protocols 610 to match to maximize or find local maximumsfor ΔN values based on indicated preferences for maximizing certainnutrients or taste preferences.

For example, laboratory experiments can be performed on bananas todetermine effect on or change in nutritional, organoleptic, and/oraesthetic value, or ΔN, for a variety of environmental conditionsbananas may be exposed to during packaging and shipment in preservationmodule 300. Using this experimental data, tables and/or algorithms couldbe developed which would predict the level of change of nutritional,organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values, or ΔN, for a particular bananabased upon information collected regarding the environmental conditionsto which the banana was exposed during its time in preservation module300. While the ultimate goal for nutritional substance supply system 10would be the actual measurement of nutritional, organoleptic, and/oraesthetic values to determine ΔN, use of derived nutritional,organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values from experimental data todetermine ΔN would allow improved logistics planning because it providesthe ability to prospectively estimate changes to nutritional,organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values, or ΔN, and because it allows moreaccurate tracking of changes to nutritional, organoleptic, and/oraesthetic values, or ΔN, while technology and systems are put in placeto allow actual measurement.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of transformation module 400 of the presentinvention. Transformation module 400 includes transformer 410, whichacts upon nutritional substance 420, and information transmission module430. When transformer 410 receives a nutritional substance 420,information transmission module 430 also receives, or retrievesinformation about the particular nutritional substance 420 that is to betransformed. This information can include creation information,preservation information, packaging information, shipping information,and possibly previous transformation information. After nutritionalsubstance 420 has been transformed by transformer 410, such informationis passed along with the transformed nutritional substance 420 by theinformation transmission module 430.

For example, sweet corn that arrives for processing by transformer 410has information associated with it, including the corn variety, where itwas planted, when it was planted, when it was picked, the soil it wasgrown in, the water used for irrigation, and the fertilizers andpesticides that were used during its growth. There may also beinformation on nutritional and/or organoleptic and/or aesthetic valuesof the corn when it was preserved for shipment. This information may bestored in the labeling of the corn. However, it may be stored in adatabase maintained by the grower, shipper, or the nutritionalsubstances industry, also referred to herein as a dynamic nutritionalvalue database. Such information could be accessed by means oftelecommunications systems, such as wireless telecommunication systems.

Additionally, the corn may have information associated with it regardinghow it was preserved for shipment from the farm to transformation module400. Such information may include historical information on theenvironment exterior the container it was shipped in, internalconditions of the container and actual information about the corn duringthe shipment. Additionally, if the preservation system acted upon suchinformation in preserving the corn, information about the preservationmeasures may also be available. Such information may be stored in thepreservation system. However, it may be stored in a database maintainedby the grower, shipper, or the nutritional substances industry, alsoreferred to herein as a dynamic nutritional value database. Suchinformation could be accessed by means of telecommunications systems,such as wireless telecommunication systems.

In the example where the nutritional substance 420 is corn, transformer410 removes the husk and the silk from the corn. It then separates thekernels from the cob, washes the kernels, and cooks them. Finally,transformer 410 packages the cooked corn in a can and labels the can.The label on the can may contain all the information provided toinformation transmission module 430. Preferably, this information isreferenced by a dynamic encode or tag, herein referred to as a dynamicinformation identifier, which identifies the information regarding thecorn in the can that is being transmitted by information transmissionmodule 430.

In practice, information transmission module 430 would receive theinformation regarding the nutritional substance 420 from a database thatis being used to track the corn during its journey from the farm to theconsumer. When transformer 410 transforms nutritional substance 420,information transmission module 430 retrieves the appropriateinformation from the database and transmits it to another database.Alternatively, the information retrieved by transmission module 430would be transmitted back to the original database, noting that thetransformation had occurred. Preferably, the information regarding thecorn retrieved by transmission module 430 would simply be appended withthe information that the transformation had occurred. Such databases areindividually and collectively referred to herein as a dynamicnutritional value database.

If the nutritional substance 420 can no longer be tracked by thereference information or dynamic information identifier that accompaniedthe nutritional substance from the creator, then new referenceinformation or a new dynamic information identifier may be created. Forexample, if the corn is combined with lima beans in the transformer 410,to make succotash, then the information for each may be combined andassigned a new reference number or a new dynamic information identifier.Preferably, a new entry is created in the dynamic nutritional valuedatabase, with references to the information related to the corn and theinformation related to the lima beans.

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of transformation module 400 of the presentinvention. Transformation module 400 includes transformer 410, whichacts upon nutritional substance 420, and information transmission module430. When transformer 410 receives a nutritional substance 420,information transmission module 430 also receives, or retrievesinformation about the particular nutritional substance 420 that is to betransformed. This information can include creation information,packaging information, shipping information, and possibly previoustransformation information. After nutritional substance 420 has beentransformed by transformer 410, such information is passed along withthe transformed nutritional substance 420 by the informationtransmission module 430, along with specific information relating to thetransformation done by transformer 410.

For example, sweet corn that arrives for processing by transformer 410has information associated with it, including the corn variety, where itwas planted, when it was planted, when it was picked, the soil it wasgrown in, the water used for irrigation, and the fertilizers andpesticides that were used during its growth. There may also beinformation on nutritional, organoleptic and aesthetic values of thecorn when it was preserved for shipment. This information may be storedin the labeling of the corn. However, it may be stored in a dynamicnutritional value database maintained by the grower, shipper, or thenutritional substances industry. Such information could be accessed bytelecommunications systems, such as wireless telecommunication systems.

Additionally, the corn may have information associated with it regardinghow it was preserved for shipment from the farm to transformation module400. Such information may include historical information on theenvironment exterior the container it was shipped in, internalconditions of the container and actual information about the corn duringthe shipment. Additionally, if the preservation system acted upon suchinformation in preserving the corn, information about the preservationmeasures may also be available. Such information may be stored in thepreservation system. However, it may be stored in a dynamic nutritionalvalue database maintained by the grower, shipper, or the nutritionalsubstances industry. Such information could be accessed by means oftelecommunications systems, such as wireless telecommunication systems.

In the example where the nutritional substance 420 is corn, transformer410 removes the husk and the silk from the corn. It then separates thekernels from the cob, washes the kernels, and cooks them. Finally,transformer 410 packages the cooked corn in a can and labels the can.

During this transformation of the nutritional substance 420 bytransformer 410, information about the transformation can be captured bytransformer 410 and sent to information transmission module 430. Thisinformation can include how the transformation was accomplished;including information on the transformer used, the recipe implemented bytransformer 410, and the settings for transformer 410 when thetransformation occurred. Additionally, any information created duringthe transformation by transformer 410 can be sent to the informationtransmission module 430. This could include measured information, suchas the actual cooking temperature, length of time of each of the steps,or weight or volume measurements. Additionally, this information couldinclude measured aesthetic, organoleptic and nutritional values.

The label on the can may contain all the information provided toinformation transmission module 430. Preferably, this information isreferenced by a dynamic information identifier which identifies theinformation regarding the corn in the can that is being transmitted byinformation transmission module 430.

In practice, information transmission module 430 would receive theinformation regarding the nutritional substance 420 from a database thatis being used to track the corn during its journey from the farm to theconsumer. When transformer 410 transforms nutritional substance 420,information transmission module 430 retrieves the appropriateinformation from the database, appends it with the information fromtransformer 410 regarding the transformation, and transmits it toanother database. Alternatively, such information would be transmittedback to the original database, including the transformation information.Preferably, the information regarding the corn would simply be appendedwith the information from transformer 410 about the transformation. Suchdatabases are individually and collectively referred to herein as adynamic nutritional value database

If the nutritional substance 420 can no longer be tracked by thereference information or a dynamic information identifier thataccompanied the nutritional substance from the creator, then newreference information or a new dynamic information identifier may becreated. For example, if the corn is combined with lima beans in thetransformer 410, to make succotash, then the information for each may becombined and assigned a new reference number or a new dynamicinformation identifier. Preferably, a new entry is created in thedynamic nutritional value database, with references to the informationrelated to the corn and the information related to the lima beans.

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of transformation module 400 of the presentinvention. Transformation module 400 includes transformer 410, whichacts upon nutritional substance 420, and information transmission module430. When transformer 410 receives a nutritional substance 420,information transmission module 430 also receives, or retrievesinformation about the particular nutritional substance 420 that is to betransformed. This information can include creation information,packaging information, shipping information, and possibly previoustransformation information. This information is used by transformer 410to dynamically modify the transformation, the process referred to hereinas adaptive transformation. After nutritional substance 420 has beentransformed by transformer 410, such information is passed along withthe transformed nutritional substance 420 by the informationtransmission module 430, along with specific information relating to theadaptive transformation done by transformer 410.

For example, sweet corn that arrives for processing by transformer 410has origination information associated with it, including the cornvariety, where it was planted, when it was planted, when it was picked,the soil it was grown in, the water used for irrigation, and thefertilizers and pesticides that were used during its growth. There mayalso be source information on nutritional, organoleptic and aestheticvalues of the corn when it was preserved for shipment. This informationmay be stored in the labeling of the corn. However, it may be stored ina dynamic nutritional value database maintained by the grower, shipper,or the nutritional substances industry. Such information could beaccessed by telecommunications systems, such as wirelesstelecommunication systems.

Additionally, the corn may have information associated with it regardinghow it was preserved for shipment from the farm to transformation module400. Such information may include historical information on theenvironment exterior the container it was shipped in, internalconditions of the container and actual information about the corn duringthe shipment. Additionally, if the preservation system acted upon suchinformation in preserving the corn, information about the preservationmeasures may also be available. Such information may be stored in thepreservation system. However, it may be stored in a database maintainedby the grower, shipper, or the nutritional substances industry, alsoreferred to herein as a dynamic nutritional value database. Suchinformation could be accessed by means of telecommunications systems,such as wireless telecommunication systems.

Any, or all, of this information can be provided to transformer 410 byinformation transmission module 430. Transformer 410 can dynamicallymodify its transformation of nutritional substance 420 in response tosuch information to adaptively transform the nutritional substance inorder to preserver or improve or minimize the degradation of thenutritional, organoleptic and/or aesthetic values of nutritionalsubstance 420.

In the example where the nutritional substance 420 is corn, transformer410 removes the husk and the silk from the corn. It then separates thekernels from the cob, washes the kernels, and cooks them. In response tothe information provided by information transmission module 430,transformer can dynamically modify the cooking temperature and time. Forexample, if transformer 410 receives information that indicates that thecorn is low in certain desirable nutrients, it might lower the cookingtemperature and time to preserve those nutrients, thus achieving a moredesirable nutritional value related to those specific nutrients in thetransformed nutritional substance. However, if transformer 410 receivesinformation that indicates that the corn is high in tough starches, itmight raise the cooking temperature and time to soften the corn, thusachieving a more desirable organoleptic value related to the texture ofthe transformed nutritional substance. Finally, transformer 410 packagesthe cooked corn in a can and labels the can.

Additionally, transformer 410 can modify its transformation of thenutritional substance in response to measured attributes of theparticular nutritional substance 420 being transformed. For example,transformer 410 can measure the color of the corn to be processed, andin response make adjustment to the transformation to preserve or enhancethe color of the transformed corn, thus achieving a more desirableaesthetic value related to the appearance of the transformed nutritionalsubstance.

During this adaptive transformation of the nutritional substance 420 bytransformer 410, information about the transformation can be captured bytransformer 410 and sent to information transmission module 430. Thisinformation can include how the transformation was accomplished;including information on any dynamic transformation modifications inresponse to information about the particular nutritional substance to betransformed, the recipe implemented by transformer 410, and the settingsfor transformer 410 when the transformation occurred. Additionally, anyinformation created during the transformation by transformer 410 can besent to the information transmission module 430. This could includemeasured information, such as the actual cooking temperature, length oftime of each of the steps. Additionally, this information could includemeasured organoleptic, aesthetic, and nutritional information, weight,and physical dimension.

The label on the packaging may contain all the information provided toinformation transmission module 430. Preferably, this information isreferenced by a dynamic information identifier which identifies theinformation regarding the nutritional substance in the packaging that isbeing transmitted by information transmission module 430.

In practice, information transmission module 430 would utilize a dynamicinformation identifier provided with the nutritional substance toretrieve and receive the information regarding the nutritional substance420 from a database that is being used to track the corn during itsjourney from the farm to the consumer. When transformer 410 transformsnutritional substance 420, information transmission module 430 retrievesthe appropriate information from the database, appends it with theinformation from transformer 410 regarding the transformation, andtransmits it to another database. Alternatively, such information wouldbe transmitted back to the original database, including thetransformation information. Preferably, the information regarding thecorn would simply be appended with the information from transformer 410about the transformation. Such databases are individually andcollectively referred to herein as a dynamic nutritional value database.

If the nutritional substance 420 can no longer be tracked by thereference information or dynamic information identifier that accompaniedthe nutritional substance from the creator, then new referenceinformation or a new dynamic information identifier may be created. Forexample, if the corn is combined with lima beans in the transformer 410,to make succotash, then the information for each may be combined andassigned a new reference number or a new dynamic information identifier.Preferably, a new entry is created in the dynamic nutritional valuedatabase, with references to the information related to the corn and theinformation related to the lima beans.

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of conditioner module 500 of the presentinvention. Conditioner system 510 receives nutritional substance 520 forconditioning before it is delivered to consumer 540. Controller 530 isoperably connected to conditioner system 510. In fact, controller 530may be integrated within conditioner system 510, or provided as aseparate device, shown in FIG. 3. Although FIG. 6 is directed to aconditioner module 500, conditioner system 510, with associatedconditioners 570, it is understood that the conditioner module may bereplaced by the preservation module 300, conditioner system 570 andconditioners 570 may be replaced by any appliance or local storagecontainer, including a scale as disclosed herein to provide thefunctionality disclosed herein. This will provide the same features,including the nutritional substance reader 590, the controller 530,nutritional substance database 550, consumer interface 560, consumer540, but in conjunction with other appliance, including scales,refrigerators, local storage environments, and others.

In an embodiment of the present invention, conditioner 570 is providedwithout controller 530, however it is provided in a format to becompatible with controller 530. Such a conditioner is also referred toherein as an information capable conditioner. In contrast, traditionalconditioners, also referred to herein as dumb conditioners, are notinformation capable, are not compatible with controller 530, andaccordingly will always be dumb conditioners. As information enablednutritional substances and conditioning systems according to the presentinvention are increasingly available, dumb conditioners will becomeincreasingly obsolete.

Information capable conditioners may be provided in a variety ofconfigurations known to those skilled in the art, and the examplesoffered herein are for purposes of illustration and not intended to belimiting in any way. In one example of an information capableconditioner, it is provided with traditional functionality, that is, itwill interact with nutritional substances in a traditional fashion,whether the nutritional substance is information enabled or not.However, the information capable conditioner is compatible withseparately available controller 530, such that at any time during orafter the manufacture and sale of the information capable conditioner,controller 530 may be coupled with the information capable conditionerto enable the full functionality and benefit of conditioner module 500.Information capable conditioners provide appliance manufacturers andconsumers great flexibility, and will not become obsolete like dumbconditioners. In some embodiments, the information capable conditioneris referred to as a dynamic appliance. In some instances the dynamicappliance has the full functionality and benefit of controller 530(sometimes referred to as an appliance controller) built into,collocated, or coupled to the dynamic appliance.

The coupling of controller 530 to the information capable conditionermay take any physical and/or communication format known to those skilledin the art. These may include, but are not limited to: an informationcapable conditioner provided with Bluetooth, or other wirelessnear-field communication capability, to communicate with acommunication-compatible controller 530 which may be any of a completelyseparate unit, an externally attachable unit, and an internally placedunit; an information capable conditioner provided with a USB port, orother electronic communication capability, to communicate with acommunication-compatible controller 530 which may be any of a completelyseparate unit, an externally attachable unit, and an internally placedunit; an information capable conditioner provided with a fiber opticport, or other optical communication capability, to communicate with acommunication-compatible controller 530 which may be any of a completelyseparate unit, an externally attachable unit, and an internally placedunit; or an information capable conditioner provided with WiFi, or otherwireless communication capability, to communicate with a WiFi compatiblecontroller 530 which may be any of a completely separate unit, anexternally attachable unit, and an internally placed unit. It isunderstood that the controller 530 may be provided with its own consumerinterface, may communicate and be operated through the consumerinterface provided with the information capable conditioner, or acombination of both.

When conditioner system 510 receives nutritional substance 520 forconditioning, nutritional substance reader 590, sometimes referred to asappliance reader in the context of a dynamic appliance, either receivesinformation regarding nutritional substance 520 and provides it tocontroller 530, which is the case if the nutritional substance 520contains a label which includes the information about nutritionalsubstance 520, and/or the nutritional substance reader 590 receivesreference information allowing retrieval of the information and providesit to controller 530, which is the case if the nutritional substance 520is associated with, or provided with a dynamic information identifier.In the case where nutritional substance 520 contains a label whichincludes the desired information about nutritional substance 520,nutritional substance reader 590 reads this information, provides it tocontroller 530, which makes it available to consumer 540 by means ofconsumer interface 560.

For example, if nutritional substance 520 is a ready-to-eat frozendinner which needs to be heated by conditioner system 510, nutritionalsubstance reader 590 would read a label on nutritional substance 520,thereby receiving the information regarding nutritional substance 520,and then provide the information to controller 530. This informationcould include creation information as to the creation of the variouscomponents which constitute the ready-to-eat dinner. This informationcould include information about where and how the corn in theready-to-eat dinner was grown, including the corn seed used, where itwas planted, how it was planted, how it was irrigated, when it waspicked, and information on fertilizers and pesticides used during itsgrowth. Additionally, this information could include the cattle lineage,health, immunization, dietary supplements that were fed to the cattlethat was slaughtered to obtain the beef in the ready-to-eat dinner.

The information from a label on nutritional substance 520 could alsoinclude information on how the components were preserved for shipmentfrom the farm or slaughterhouse on their path to the nutritionalsubstance transformer who prepared the ready-to-eat dinner. Additionalinformation could include how the nutritional substance transformertransformed the components into the ready-to-eat dinner, such as recipeused, additives to the dinner, and actual measured conditions during thetransformation into the ready-to-eat dinner.

While such information could be stored on a label located on thepackaging for nutritional substance 520 so as to be read by nutritionalsubstance reader 590, provided to controller 530, and provided toconsumer interface 560 for display to consumer 540, preferably, thelabel on the nutritional substance package includes referenceinformation, such as a dynamic information identifier, which is read bynutritional substance reader 590 and provided to controller 530 thatallows controller 530 to retrieve the information about nutritionalsubstance 520 from nutritional substance database 550. Further, linkingconsumer feedback and updates regarding observed or measured changes inthe nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of nutritionalsubstances would provide for virtually real time updates of ΔNinformation from the actual consumer.

Nutritional substance database 550 could be a database maintained by thetransformer of nutritional substance 520 for access by consumers of suchnutritional substance 520 to track or estimate changes in thenutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of those nutritionalsubstances, as well as any other information about the nutritionalsubstance that can be tracked, including but not limited to the examplespreviously described. However, preferably, nutritional substancedatabase 550 is a database maintained by the nutritional substanceindustry for all such information regarding nutritional substancesgrown, raised, preserved, transformed, conditioned and consumed byconsumer 540, in which case it is the database contained withininformation module 100 and also referred to herein as a dynamicnutritional value database.

It is important to note that while FIGS. 6-9 of various embodiments ofthe present invention show nutritional substance database 550 as part ofthe conditioner module 500, they are in no way limited to thisinterpretation. It is understood that this convention is only one way ofillustrating the inventions described herein, and it is furtherunderstood that this is in no way limiting to the scope of the presentinvention. The same is understood for recipe database 555, consumerdatabase 580, and nutritional substance industry database 558.

In an alternate embodiment of the present invention, controller 530, inaddition to providing information regarding nutritional substance 520 toconsumer 540, also receives information from conditioner system 510 onhow nutritional substance 520 was conditioned. Additionally, conditionersystem 510 may also measure or sense information about nutritionalsubstance 520 before or during its conditioning by conditioner system510, and provide such information to controller 530, so that suchinformation could also be provided to consumer 540, via consumerinterface 560. Such information may be sensed by attribute sensorsproviding information related to ΔN of the nutritional substance to beutilized by the controller to confirm that conditioning parameterscurrently being implemented will achieve desired residual nutritional,organoleptic, or aesthetic values, and if it is determined that theywill not, such information may be used to adaptively modify theconditioning parameters in order to achieve desired residualnutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic values. Further, the controller530 can receive information from the consumer via consumer interface 560regarding observed or measured changes in the nutritional, organoleptic,and/or aesthetic values of nutritional substances before or afterconditioning, to provide virtually real time updates of ΔN informationfrom the actual consumer, for use by the controller and/or transmissionto the nutritional substance database 550.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, controller 530organizes and correlates the information it receives regardingnutritional substance 520 from the various sources of such information,including nutritional substance database 550 and conditioner system 510,and presents such information through consumer interface 560 to consumer540 in a manner useful to consumer 540. For example, such informationmay be provided in a manner that assists consumer 540 in understandinghow nutritional substance 520 meets consumer's 540 nutritional needs. Itcould organize information regarding nutritional substance 520 to trackconsumer's 540 weight loss program. Controller 530 could have access to,or maintain, information regarding consumer 540, so as to track andassist consumer 540 in meeting their specific nutritional needs.

In another embodiment of the present invention conditioner system 510could be a plurality of conditioner devices or dynamic appliances whichcan be selectively operated by controller 530 to prepare nutritionalsubstance 520. Conditioner system 510 can be either a singleconditioning device, such as a microwave oven, toaster oven,conventional oven, toaster, blender, steamer, stovetop, or human cook.Conditioner system 510 may be a plurality of conditioners 570. In thecase where a plurality of conditioners 570 comprise conditioner system510, nutritional substance 520 may be manually or automaticallytransferred between conditioners 570 for eventual transfer to consumer540.

Nutritional substance reader 590 may be an automatic reader such as abarcode reader or RFID sensor which receives information fromnutritional substance 520 or a reference code from nutritional substance520, such as a dynamic information identifier associated with, orprovided with the nutritional substance 520, and provides thisinformation to controller 530. Nutritional substance reader 590 mightalso be a manual entry system where the reference code, such as adynamic information identifier associated with, or provided with thenutritional substance 520, is manually entered into nutritionalsubstance reader 590 for use by controller 530, or may alternatively bemanually entered into consumer interface 560 for use by controller 530.

In other embodiments, the consumer may enter information regarding thenutritional substance 520, including information identifying thenutritional substance 520. This may be manually through a user interfaceon the conditioner or other appliance, a mobile phone wirelessly linkedto the appliance or other methods as disclosed herein. This allows thecontroller 530 to identify and access a database 550 with informationregarding types or categories of nutritional substances 520. That way,if the nutritional substance 520 is not provided with an identifier, theconsumer can provide the necessary information to sufficiently identifythe nutritional substance 520. Accordingly, various sensors may thensense various attributes of a the nutritional substance 520 tocomplement the information entered manually by the consumer, to providefurther specific information on the nutritional substance 520 that maybe used to optimize ΔN information provided to the user, optimizeconditioning sequences or protocols performed on the nutritionalsubstance 520. For example, the consumer may enter in a category such assalmon. Then, a weight sensor in connection with a conditioner couldsense the mass or amount of salmon, and optionally, color or visualsensors could detect whether the salmon is wild salmon (reddish) or farmraised (light pink). In addition, various sensor arrays may be able todetect VOCs or volatile organic compounds that could determine the levelof spoliation, or how fresh the fish is. This information taken fromsensors could be utilized to derive or to tailor a conditioning protocolto the specific nutritional substance, including its weight, age, andother characteristics. For example, the cooking time and process may bemodified for a salmon slab depending on its weight. Additionally,certain types of salmon may have more or less fat and therefore, optimalcooking times and temperatures will vary accordingly. If the informationdatabase contains data on different weights and types of salmon, and thesensors can detect this information, the conditioning sequence orprotocol can be optimized to account for the sensed attributes.

Nutritional substance database 550 could be a flat database, relationaldatabase or, preferably, a multi-dimensional database. Nutritionalsubstance database 550 could be local but, preferably, it would belocated remotely, such as on the internet, and accessed via atelecommunication system, such as a wireless telecommunication system.Controller 530 can be implemented using a computing device, such as amicro-controller, micro-processor, personal computer, or tabletcomputer. Controller 530 could be integrated to include nutritionalsubstance reader 590, consumer interface 560, and/or nutritionalsubstance database 550. Additionally, controller 530 may be integratedin conditioner system 510, including integration into conditioner 570.

In addition, nutritional substance reader 590 may be an opticalnutritional substance identifier or sensor that optically determines theidentity of the nutritional substance 520, and/or certain physicalattributes of the nutritional substance 520 by evaluation of data outputby sensors that optically sense the nutritional substance 520. Forexample, an optical sensor may be utilized that captures light or otherradiation reflected or transmitted through the nutritional substance520. Then, the system could evaluate the optical data output by thesensor to determine certain characteristics of the nutritionalsubstance. For example, the optical data may be utilized to determinethe color, intensity, shape, radius of curvature, texture, fiber size,and other attributes. These attributes may then be used to classify thenutritional substance 520, for example by identifying the nutritionalsubstance as an apple, red delicious, red delicious from Washington,orange, navel orange, tangelo, or blood orange, carrot, steak, or filetmignon. This identification information may then be utilized to accessinformation, including nutritional and ΔN information, regarding thenutritional substance 520 in the nutritional substance database 550 asdescribed herein with respect to the nutritional substance reader 590.Thus, the optical sensor or reader may be utilized to identify thenutritional substance 520 in place of utilizing a dynamic informationidentifier on the nutritional substance 520. Various products areavailable that are capable of using optical technology to visuallyidentify produce, and various other items. For example, an automatedoptical fruit recognition system developed by Fraunhofer is capable ofdetecting and identifying various produce optically as described by anarticle titled “Automated Fruit Recognition” available athttp://www.isob.fraunhofer.de/servlet/is/33328/ which is incorporated byreference herein in its entirety. Additionally, an optical objectrecognition system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,310,964 that isdescribed as capable of detecting identity and size of produce and isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

It is important to note that while FIGS. 6-9 of various embodiments ofthe present invention show nutritional substance database 550 as part ofthe conditioner module 500, they are in no way limited to thisinterpretation. It is understood that this convention is only one way ofillustrating the inventions described herein, and it is furtherunderstood that this is in no way limiting to the scope of the presentinvention. The same is understood for recipe database 555, consumerdatabase 580, and nutritional substance industry database 558. Forexample, any of nutritional substance database 550, recipe database 555,consumer database 580, and nutritional substance industry database 558can be contained within information module 100 or within conditionermodule 500.

Consumer interface 560 can be implemented as a display device mounted oncontroller 530, conditioner system 510, or conditioner 570. However,consumer interface 560 is preferably a tablet computer, personalcomputer, personal assistant, or smart phone, running appropriatesoftware, such as an app.

While conditioner module 500 can be located in the consumer's home,conditioner module 500 may be located at a restaurant or other foodservice establishment for use in preparing nutritional substances 520for consumers who patronize such an establishment. Additionally,conditioner module 500 could be located at a nutritional substanceseller such as a grocery store or health food store for preparation ofnutritional substances 520 purchased by consumers at such anestablishment. It could be foreseen that conditioner modules 500 couldbecome standalone businesses where consumers select nutritionalsubstances for preparation at the establishment or removal from theestablishment for consumption elsewhere.

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of conditioning module 500 of the presentinvention. Conditioner system 510 receives nutritional substance 520 forconditioning before it is delivered to consumer 540. Controller 530 isoperably connected to conditioner system 510. In fact, controller 530may be integrated within conditioner system 510, although in FIG. 7, itis shown as a separate device. When conditioner system 510 receivesnutritional substance 520 for conditioning, nutritional substance reader590 either receives information regarding nutritional substance 520 andprovides it to controller 530, which is the case if the nutritionalsubstance 520 contains a label which includes the information aboutnutritional substance 520, and/or the nutritional substance reader 590receives reference information, such as a dynamic informationidentifier, and provides it to controller 530, allowing retrieval of theinformation about nutritional substance 520 from nutritional substancedatabase 550, which is the case when the nutritional substance isassociated with, or provided with, a dynamic information identifier. Inthe case where nutritional substance 520 contains a label which includesinformation about nutritional substance 520, nutritional substancereader 590 reads this information, provides it to controller 530 andmakes it available to consumer 540 by means of consumer interface 560.

In another embodiment, conditioner may also detect search attributes ofnutritional substance 520, through nutritional substance attributesensors 591. Nutritional substance attribute sensors 591 may be avariety of sensors as disclosed herein, including: (1) weight, (2) avisible light camera, (3) and infrared camera, (3) ambient moisture, (4)ambient temperature, (5) a wireless probe or (6) a spectrometer sensor.The information from the sensors may be provided to controller 530 inaddition to or instead of the information provided by nutritionalsubstance reader 590. For example, in some embodiments, the consumer 540will input information regarding the nutritional substance 520, whichmay be for example, an identification of the nutritional substance 520,or the general type of nutritional substance 520. Accordingly, thenutritional substance attribute sensors 591 may detect additionalinformation regarding the nutritional substance 520, that may betransferred to the controller 530, including weight, color, surfacetemperature, probe temperature, ambient temperature once the substance520 is deposited in the conditioner 570. Data regarding theseattributers output from the sensors 591, may be utilized to providedadditional information regarding the nutritional substance 520 to thecontroller 530.

In an embodiment of the present invention, conditioner system 510comprises conditioner 570. Conditioner 570 is a conditioning apparatuswhich can perform a number of operations on nutritional substance 520,separately and/or at the same time. For example, conditioner 570 couldbe a combination microwave oven, convection oven, grill, andconventional oven. Controller 530 could operate conditioner 570 toexecute a sequence of conditioning cycles on nutritional substance 520to complete its conditioning.

For example, if nutritional substance 520 is a whole frozen turkey to beprepared for dinner, consumer 540 would place the turkey in conditioner570, the combination cooking unit suggested above. Controller 530 wouldreceive and/or create a protocol of conditioning cycles. Such a protocolcould be read by nutritional substance reader 590 from a label onnutritional substance 520. Alternately, a protocol of conditioningcycles could be obtained from nutritional substance database 550 throughreference information, such as a dynamic information identifier,obtained by nutritional substance reader 590 from nutritional substance520. For example, a label on the turkey, could be read by nutritionalsubstance reader 590, providing reference information for the turkey,such as a dynamic information identifier, which controller 530 uses toobtain a conditioning protocol for the turkey from nutritional substancedatabase 550.

Additionally, various conditioning protocols stored in nutritionalsubstance database 550 may contain data or be mapped to informationregarding certain attributes that are sensed by nutritional substanceattribute sensors 591. These data may be utilized to modify conditioningprotocols based on attribute data sensed by the sensors 591 and providedto controller 530. Accordingly, the controller 530 could modify or adapta selected conditioning protocol to be optimized based on certain datasensed by the sensors 591. For example, if a nutritional substanceprotocol called for a certain surface temperature, or a cooking anutritional substance 520 at a specific surface temperature sensed by aninfrared temperature sensor for a predetermined time, various attributesensors may modify the recipe or protocol. For instance, if an infraredsensor 591 initially determined that the starting temperature of thenutritional substance 520 was higher than expected or the average recipeis based on, then the target surface temperature may be lowered orraised accordingly, or the total cooking time may be altered, andtherefore altering the conditioning protocol. In another example, aweight sensor 591 may determine that the weight of a substance 50 ishigher than the average for which a selected conditioning protocol isbased on. Accordingly, the target surface temperature may be raised orlowered, or the time for conditioning may be extended or shortenedappropriately to optimize the conditioning protocol.

Nutritional substance database 550 may contain information regardingoptimal modifications to recipes or conditioning protocols based onvarious the quantities of various sensed attributes. For example, thedatabase 550 may contain protocol data based on various weights of thesame nutritional substance 520. Accordingly, the sensors 591 could thendetect the weight of a nutritional substance 520, a conditioningprotocol could be retrieved from the database 550, and then the protocolcould be modified based on further data, potentially also from thedatabase 550 by the controller 530. For instance, the database 550 maycontain equations for calculating optical cooking temperature and/orduration based on the weight of a nutritional substance 520. This couldbe using various data points and extrapolating between the points foroptimal cooking times and/or temperatures, or could be based on a curvefit to certain examples of that specific type of nutritional substance520 or more general categories of that nutritional substance 520. Forexample, if a recipe for cooking fish is 2 minutes at 350 per ounce, thecontroller 530 may vary the recipe appropriately based on a sensedweight of a piece of fish. Additionally, the starting temperature of thefish may affect the total cooking time, and the recipe may be modifiedaccordingly. In other embodiments, the database 550 may containinformation regarding various starting temperatures for fish, meat orother nutritional substances 520, and rearrange the entire protocolbased on the starting temperature. This may also be applied using,moisture, elevation of conditioner 570, location, ambient humidity,color of nutritional substance 520 (could indicate fat content,spoliation, ripeness, type of nutritional substance 520, etc.) and otherattributes sensed by sensors 591. In other embodiments, the consumer 540may provide input regarding desired options, or based potential ΔNfactors that may be optimized including nutrition, taste, texture, andother factors.

Additionally, in some embodiments, the conditioner 570 may be acombination conditioner 570 that includes the capability to bake, broil,convention cook, microwave, rotate the nutritional substance 520 on aturntable, or perform other conditioning options. These differentconditioners may be utilized simultaneously, serially, alone, or inother various combinations to maximize certain ΔN factors or attributes,or consumer preferences for conditioning the nutritional substance 520.Accordingly, the database 550 may contain various data points or otherindications of the combination of conditioning types that may beutilized to optimally condition a nutritional substance 520 based on thechosen criteria. For example, if a weight sensor 591 detects that apiece of fish weights more than an average piece of fish or a fishsample a conditioning protocol in the database 550 is based on, thecontroller 530 may elect to condition the fish first by utilizing themicrowave to cook the fish through the fastest, so as not to overcookthe outside using a convention or other non-microwave cooking option.

An example of such a conditioning protocol for a frozen turkey could beto operate conditioner 570, the combination cooking unit, in thefollowing fashion. In some embodiments, the conditioner 570 may sensethe weight, temperature and other attributes of the turkey using aweight measurement sensor, and determine the ΔN values that would resultfrom different potential conditioning protocols based on informationstored in the nutritional substance database 550. This informationstored in the nutritional substance database 550, may include the ΔNvalues that result from different conditioning protocols based on theweight of the nutritional substance, time, and other conditioningparameters (e.g. cooking temperature). In these embodiments, theconsumer may be presented with various conditioning options and allowedto select the desired conditioning option that results in the desired ΔNvalue. Once the consumer selected the conditioning option, thecontroller 530 may, for example, first instruct conditioner 570 to usethe microwave function of the combination cooking unit to defrost theturkey according to the conditioning protocol obtained for the turkeyfrom nutritional substance database 550 and possibly according toinformation provided by conditioner 570, such as the weight of theturkey obtained from a weight measurement sensor within conditioner 570,information regarding the defrosting process as measured by conditioner570, or values related to ΔN provided by nutritional attribute sensorsbefore or during defrosting. Following defrosting of the turkey,controller 530 next instructs the combination cooking unit to operate asa convection oven to cook the turkey, according to the conditioningprotocol obtained for the turkey from nutritional substance database 550and the weight of the turkey, for a sufficient length of time so as toensure that the turkey reaches the proper internal temperature to meetsafety requirements, and to maximize organoleptic and/or nutritionalproperties based on the ΔN and conditioning protocol selected by theconsumer and/or determined by the controller 530. Alternatively, oradditionally, the conditioning protocol obtained for the turkey fromnutritional substance database 550 may depend upon a direct measurementof the internal temperature of the turkey, the weight of the turkey, ora combination of measured temperature and time and weight, or valuesrelated to ΔN provided by nutritional attribute sensors before or duringconditioning. Following the convection oven cooking of the turkey,controller 530 could instruct the combination cooking unit to grill theturkey, according to the conditioning protocol obtained for the turkeyfrom nutritional substance database 550, for a sufficient period of timeto create a desirable golden and crispy skin, which could be based on amodification to a recipe based on sensed attributes of the turkey,including weight, color, moisture and starting temperature.Alternatively, or additionally, the conditioning protocol obtained forthe turkey from nutritional substance database 550 may depend upon adirect measurement by a nutritional attribute sensor to measure a ΔN,such as an optical sensor to sense external aesthetic values of theturkey such as color, change of color, texture, or change of texture,temperature, or a weight measurement sensor to sense the weight of theturkey. Alternatively, or additionally, the conditioning protocolobtained for the turkey from nutritional substance database 550 maydepend upon a direct measurement by an infrared sensor of the surfacetemperature of the turkey, or a combination time, measured aestheticvalues, weight, and/or measured surface temperature and/or measured ΔNinformation. Finally, controller 530 could instruct the combinationcooking unit to use all three cooking functions at the same time toprepare the turkey for optimal consumption according to the conditioningprotocol obtained for the turkey from nutritional substance database550.

Alternatively, conditioner system 510 could be composed of a pluralityof conditioners 570. While an automated system for moving a nutritionalsubstance between such conditioners would be optimal, conditioner system510 could be operated manually by consumer 540 from instructionsprovided by the controller 530 to consumer interface 560. In thisembodiment, controller 530 could provide consumer 540 with instructionsas to where to move the turkey after each step in the conditioningprotocol. In this example, controller 530 instructs consumer 540 throughconsumer interface 560 to first place the frozen turkey in conditioner570, a microwave oven. Controller 530 instructs the microwave oven todefrost the turkey based on information possibly provided by nutritionalsubstance reader 590, nutritional substance database 550 and/orconditioner 570. Upon completion of defrosting by the microwave oven,controller 530 could instruct consumer 540 through interface 560 to movethe defrosted turkey from the microwave oven to another conditioner 570,a convection oven. Controller 530 would operate the convection oven tocook the turkey for a sufficient length of time so as to ensure that theturkey reaches the proper internal temperature to meet safetyrequirements, and to maximize organoleptic and/or nutritionalproperties. Finally, following the cooking cycle in the convection oven,controller 530 could instruct consumer 540 through consumer interface560 to move the turkey from the convection oven to another conditioner570, a grill. Controller 530 would operate the grill so as to grill theturkey for a sufficient period of time to create a desirable golden andcrispy skin. In these embodiments, the consumer 540 may be instructed toplace the turkey on an electronic scale to determine the weight of theturkey in between each step, so the conditioning system 510 may recordthe change in weight of the turkey. The electronic scale may be inelectronic communication with the system 510 to allow the weightinformation to be transferred throughout the system and utilized tocalculate an updated ΔN. The change in weight may then be used by thecontroller 530 to further refine or determine the ΔN from conditioningthe turkey and to provide the consumer 540 with updates regarding theΔN. This may be an alternative to having a weight sensor or scale ineach of the conditioners.

Alternatively, conditioner system 510 could be composed of a pluralityof conditioners 570; and a consumer 540 (which would include anyindividuals preparing the turkey for consumption), fulfilling additionalconditioner roles, as will be explained. While an automated system formoving a nutritional substance between such conditioners would beoptimal, conditioner system 510 could be operated manually by consumer540 from instructions provided by a consumer interface 560, which inthis case could be a handheld device such as a cellular phone, tabletcomputer, PDA, or any other device useful for communicating withnutritional substance database 550 and the consumer 540. The handhelddevice additionally fulfills the role of nutritional substance reader590 and controller 530. For example, the consumer 540 can utilize acamera function of the handheld device to read a barcode, or QR code, onor associated with the turkey, wherein the code provides a dynamicinformation identifier. The handheld device can then use the dynamicinformation identifier to retrieve information regarding the turkey fromnutritional substance database 550. In this example, consumer 540utilizes the handheld device to read a barcode (or any other readablecode) on the turkey, the barcode containing a dynamic informationidentifier associated with information regarding the turkey within thenutritional substance database 550. The consumer 540 uses the handhelddevice to retrieve and review a conditioning protocol from nutritionalsubstance database 550, and is accordingly instructed as to where tomove the turkey for each step in the conditioning protocol and furtherinstructed on the conditioning parameters required for each step of theconditioning protocol. In this example, consumer 540 retrieves andreviews a conditioning protocol from nutritional substance database 550using the handheld device and is instructed to first place the frozenturkey in conditioner 570, a microwave oven, and further instructed onconditioning parameters for the microwave oven to defrost the turkey.Consumer 540 is instructed that upon completion of defrosting by themicrowave oven, the turkey is to be moved to another conditioner 570, aconvection oven. Consumer 540 is further instructed on conditioningparameters for the convection oven to cook the turkey for a sufficientlength of time so as to ensure that the turkey reaches the properinternal temperature to meet safety requirements, and to maximizeorganoleptic and/or nutritional properties. Finally, consumer 540 isinstructed that upon completion of cooking by the convection oven, theturkey is to be moved to another conditioner 570, a grill, and furtherinstructed on conditioning parameters for the grill so as to grill theturkey for a sufficient period of time to create a desirable golden andcrispy skin.

In the case where conditioner system 510 is a plurality of conditioners570, it would also be possible for controller 530 to manage conditioners570 within conditioner system 510 so as to produce a complete meal. Forexample, controller 530 could select conditioning protocols which wouldmaximize the use of each conditioner 570. For example, in a mealcomprising a turkey, home baked bread, and acorn squash, controller 530could stage and operate the microwave oven, convection oven, and grillto minimize preparation time for the meal by determining which itemshould be cooked in which conditioner 570, in which order, to maximizeusage of each conditioner 570 in conditioning system 510. In thisexample, while the turkey is being defrosted in the microwave oven,controller 530 could instruct consumer 540 through interface 560 toplace the bread dough in the convection oven and the acorn squash on thegrill. Following the defrosting of the turkey, when the turkey is movedto the convection oven, which finished baking the bread, the bread couldbe moved to the grill for browning, and the acorn squash could be movedto microwave oven to keep warm until the entire meal is ready.

For example, if nutritional substance 520 is a ready-to-eat frozendinner which needs to be heated by conditioner system 510, nutritionalsubstance reader 590 would read a label on nutritional substance 520,thereby receiving information regarding nutritional substance 520, andthen provide the information to controller 530. This information couldinclude creation information as to the creation of the variouscomponents which constitute the ready-to-eat dinner. This informationcould include information about where and how the corn in theready-to-eat dinner was grown, including the corn seed used, where itwas planted, how it was planted, how it was irrigated, when it waspicked, and information on fertilizers and pesticides used during itsgrowth. Additionally, this information could include the cattle lineage,health, immunization, dietary supplements that were fed to the cattlethat was slaughtered to obtain the beef in the ready-to-eat dinner.

The information from a label on nutritional substance 520 could alsoinclude information on how the components were preserved for shipmentfrom the farm or slaughterhouse on their path to the nutritionalsubstance transformer who prepared the ready-to-eat dinner. Additionalinformation could include how the nutritional substance transformertransformed the components into the ready-to-eat dinner, such as recipeused, additives to the dinner, and actual measured conditions during thetransformation into the ready-to-eat dinner.

While such information could be stored on a label located on thepackaging for nutritional substance 520 so as to be read by nutritionalsubstance reader 590, provided to controller 530, and provided toconsumer interface 560 for display to consumer 540, preferably, thelabel on the nutritional substance package includes referenceinformation, such as a dynamic information identifier, which is read bynutritional substance reader 590 and provided to controller 530 thatallows controller 530 to retrieve the information about nutritionalsubstance 520 from nutritional substance database 550. Further, linkingconsumer feedback and updates regarding observed or measured changes inthe nutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of nutritionalsubstances would provide for virtually real time updates of ΔNinformation from the actual consumer.

Nutritional substance database 550 could be a database maintained by thetransformer of nutritional substance 520 for access by consumers of suchnutritional substance 520 to track, estimate, or predict changes in thenutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of those nutritionalsubstances, including those based on weight and conditioning protocolsand other factors, as well as any other information about thenutritional substance that can be tracked, including but not limited theweight of the substances, previous conditioning of the substances andthe other examples previously described. However, preferably,nutritional substance database 550 is a database within informationmodule 100 that is maintained by the nutritional substance industry forall such information regarding nutritional substances grown, raised,preserved, transformed, conditioned and consumed by consumer 540, inwhich case it is the database contained within information module 100and also referred to herein as a dynamic nutritional value database.

Nutritional substance database 550 may contain information regardingoptimal modifications to recipes or conditioning protocols based onvarious the quantities of various sensed attributes. For example, thedatabase 550 may contain protocol data based on various weights of thesame nutritional substance 520. Accordingly, the sensors 591 could thendetect the weight of a nutritional substance 520, a conditioningprotocol could be retrieved from the database 550, and then the protocolcould be modified based on further data, potentially also from thedatabase 550 by the controller 530. For instance, the database maycontain equations for calculating optical cooking temperature and/orduration based on the weight of a nutritional substance 520. This couldbe using various data points and extrapolating between the points foroptimal cooking times and/or temperatures, or could be based on a curvefit to certain examples of that specific type of nutritional substance520 or more general categories of that nutritional substance 520. Forexample, if a recipe for cooking fish is 2 minutes at 350 per ounce, thecontroller 530 may vary the recipe appropriately based on a sensedweight of a piece of fish. Additionally, the starting temperature of thefish may affect the total cooking time, and the recipe may be modifiedaccordingly. In other embodiments, the database 550 may containinformation regarding various starting temperatures for fish, meat orother nutritional substances 520, and rearrange the entire protocolbased on the starting temperature. This may also be applied using,moisture, elevation of conditioner 570, location, ambient humidity,color of nutritional substance 520 (could indicate fat content,spoliation, ripeness, type of nutritional substance 520, etc.) and otherattributes sensed by sensors 591. In other embodiments, the consumer 540may provide input regarding desired options, or based potential ΔNfactors that may be optimized including nutrition, taste, texture, andother factors.

In an alternate embodiment of the present invention, controller 530, inaddition to providing information regarding nutritional substance 520 toconsumer 540, also receives information from conditioner system 510 onhow nutritional substance 520 was conditioned. Additionally, conditionersystem 510 may also measure or sense information about nutritionalsubstance 520 before or during its conditioning by conditioner system510, and provide such information to controller 530, including theweight of the substance 520, so that such information could also beprovided to consumer 540, via consumer interface 560. Such informationmay be sensed by attribute sensors providing information related to ΔNof the nutritional substance to be utilized by the controller to confirmthat conditioning parameters currently being implemented will achievedesired residual nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic values, and ifit is determined that they will not, such information may be used toadaptively modify the conditioning parameters in order to achievedesired residual nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic values.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, controller 530organizes and correlates the information it receives regardingnutritional substance 520 from the various sources of such information,including nutritional substance database 550 and conditioner system 510,and presents such information through consumer interface 560 to consumer540 in a manner useful to consumer 540. For example, such informationmay be provided in a manner that assists consumer 540 in understandinghow nutritional substance 520 meets consumer's 540 nutritional needsbefore or after conditioning, or how it meets the consumer's needs basedon various proposed conditioning parameters. This may include how thenutritional substance's 520 current weight and ΔN will be affected byproposed conditioning parameters. It could organize informationregarding nutritional substance 520 to track consumer's 540 weight lossprogram. Controller 530 could have access to, or maintain, informationregarding consumer 540, so as to track and assist consumer 540 inmeeting their specific nutritional needs.

In another embodiment of the present invention conditioner system 510could be a plurality of conditioner devices or dynamic appliances whichcan be selectively operated by controller 530 to prepare nutritionalsubstance 520. Conditioner system 510 can be either a singleconditioning device, such as a microwave oven, toaster oven,conventional oven, toaster, blender, steamer, stovetop, or human cook.Conditioner system 510 may be a plurality of conditioners 570. In thecase where a plurality of conditioners 570 comprise conditioner system510, nutritional substance 520 may be manually or automaticallytransferred between conditioners 570 for eventual transfer to consumer540.

Nutritional substance reader 590 may be an automatic reader such as abarcode reader or RFID sensor which receives information fromnutritional substance 520 or a reference code from nutritional substance520, such as a dynamic information identifier, and provides thisinformation to controller 530. Nutritional substance reader 590 mightalso be a manual entry system where the reference code, such as adynamic information identifier associated with, or provided with thenutritional substance 520, is manually entered into nutritionalsubstance reader 590 for controller 530.

Nutritional substance database 550 could be a flat database, relationaldatabase or, preferably, a multi-dimensional database. Nutritionalsubstance database 550 could be local but, preferably, it would belocated remotely, such as on the internet, and accessed via atelecommunication system, such as a wireless telecommunication system.Controller 530 can be implemented using a computing device, such as amicro-controller, micro-processor, personal computer, or tabletcomputer. Controller 530 could be integrated to include nutritionalsubstance reader 590, consumer interface 560, and/or nutritionalsubstance database 550. Additionally, controller 530 may be integratedin conditioner system 510, including integration into conditioner 570.

It is important to note that while FIGS. 6-9 of various embodiments ofthe present invention show nutritional substance database 550 as part ofthe conditioner module 500, they are in no way limited to thisinterpretation. It is understood that this convention is only one way ofillustrating the inventions described herein, and it is furtherunderstood that this is in no way limiting to the scope of the presentinvention. The same is understood for recipe database 555, consumerdatabase 580, and nutritional substance industry database 558. Forexample, any of nutritional substance database 550, recipe database 555,consumer database 580, and nutritional substance industry database 558can be contained within information module 100 or within conditionermodule 500.

Consumer interface 560 can be implemented as a display device mounted oncontroller 530, conditioner system 510, or conditioner 570. However,consumer interface 560 is preferably a tablet computer, personalcomputer, personal assistant, or smart phone, running appropriatesoftware, such as an app.

While conditioner module 500 can be located in the consumer's home,conditioner module 500 may be located at a restaurant or other foodservice establishment for use in preparing nutritional substances 520for consumers who patronize such an establishment. Additionally,conditioner module 500 could be located at a nutritional substanceseller such as a grocery store or health food store for preparation ofnutritional substances 520 purchased by consumers at such anestablishment. It could be foreseen that conditioner modules 500 couldbecome standalone businesses where consumers select nutritionalsubstances for preparation at the establishment or removal from theestablishment for consumption elsewhere.

Additionally, controller 530 uses nutritional substance informationretrieved by nutritional substance reader 590 from nutritional substance520, or retrieved from nutritional substance database 550 usingreference information obtained by nutritional substance reader 590 fromnutritional substance 520, to dynamically modify the operation ofconditioner system 510 to maintain organoleptic and nutritionalproperties of nutritional substance 520. For example, if the nutritionalsubstance 520 is a ready-to-eat dinner, controller 530 could modify theinstructions to conditioner system 530 in response to informationregarding a ΔN of the corn used in the ready-to-eat dinner such that atemperature and cooking duration can be modified to affect the residualnutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic value of the corn.

In an embodiment, the label on nutritional substance 520 could containthe conditioning instructions for nutritional substance 520, or areference, such as a dynamic information identifier, to suchconditioning instructions in nutritional substance database 550. Inoperation, this would allow controller 530 to obtain information aboutnutritional substance 520 on how to dynamically operate conditionersystem 510 to condition nutritional substance 520, without consumerintervention. Additionally, conditioning instructions for nutritionalsubstance 520 could be provided for a variety of different conditionersystems 510, or conditioners 570, and controller could select the properconditioning instructions.

In an embodiment, nutritional substance reader 590 and/or conditionersystem 510 measures or senses information about a current nutritional,organoleptic, and aesthetic value of nutritional substance 520, such aswith nutritional substance attribute sensors, and provides suchinformation to controller 530 to allow controller 530 to dynamicallymodify operation of conditioner system 510 including by modifying aconditioning protocol based on previously recorded data regardingconditioning of the nutritional substance 520 at various quantities ofthe sensed attribute. This may include sensing a weight of thenutritional substance 520, and the conditioner system 510 may bedynamically controlled based on feedback from the weight measurementsensors incorporated or in communication with the conditioner system510. In other embodiments, a separate scale or appliance with a weightmeasurement sensor may be provided that allows a consumer to weigh thenutritional substance 520 periodically, before, or after conditioning.The separate scale or appliance may include a nutritional substancereader 590, or may be integrated with the conditioning system 510 andnot require a separate reader 590, and rather the information regardingthe nutritional substance 520 originally detected by the reader 590 forthe system 510 may be automatically associated with the nutritionalsubstance 520 placed on the scale.

For example, a conditioner may also detect certain attributes ofnutritional substance 520 through nutritional substance attributesensors 591. Nutritional substance attribute sensors 591 may be avariety of sensors as disclosed herein, including: (1) weight, (2) avisible light camera, (3) and infrared camera, (3) ambient moisture, (4)ambient temperature, (5) a wireless probe or (6) a spectrometer sensor.The information from the sensors may be provided to controller 530 inaddition to or instead of the information provided by nutritionalsubstance reader 590. For example, in some embodiments, the consumer 540will input information regarding the nutritional substance 520, whichmay be for example, an identification of the nutritional substance 520,or the general type of nutritional substance 520. Accordingly, thenutritional substance attribute sensors 591 may detect additionalinformation regarding the nutritional substance 520, that may betransferred to the controller 530, including weight, color, surfacetemperature, probe temperature, ambient temperature once the substance520 is deposited in the conditioner 570. Data regarding theseattributers output from the sensors 591, may be utilized to providedadditional information regarding the nutritional substance 520 to thecontroller 530.

Additionally, various conditioning protocols stored in nutritionalsubstance database 550 may contain data regarding certain attributesthat are sensed by nutritional substance attribute sensors 591. Thesedata may be utilized to modify conditioning protocols based on attributedata sensed by the sensors 591 and provided to controller 530.Accordingly, the controller 530 could modify or adapt a selectedconditioning protocol to be optimized based on certain data sensed bythe sensors 591. For example, if a nutritional substance protocol calledfor a certain surface temperature, or a cooking a nutritional substance520 at a specific surface temperature sensed by an infrared temperaturesensor for a predetermined time, various attribute sensors may modifythe recipe or protocol. For instance, if an infrared sensor 591initially determined that the starting temperature of the nutritionalsubstance 520 was higher than expected or the average startingtemperature a recipe or data set is based on, then the target surfacetemperature may be lowered or raised accordingly, or the total cookingtime may be altered, and therefore altering the conditioning protocol.In another example, a weight sensor 591 may determine that the weight ofa substance 50 is higher than the average for which a selectedconditioning protocol data set is based on. Accordingly, the targetsurface temperature may be raised or lowered, or the time forconditioning may be extended or shortened appropriately to optimize theconditioning protocol.

In an additional embodiment of the present invention, consumer 540provides information regarding their needs and/or desires with regard tothe nutritional substance 520 to consumer interface 560. Consumerinterface 560 provides this information to controller 530 so as to allowcontroller 530 to dynamically modify conditioning parameters used byconditioner system 510 in the conditioning of nutritional substance 520,or to request from nutritional substance database 550 dynamicallymodified conditioning parameters to be used by conditioner system 510 inthe conditioning of nutritional substance 520, responsive to theconsumer provided information. Consumer's 540 needs and/or desires couldinclude nutritional parameters, taste parameters, aesthetic parameters.For example, consumer 540 may have needs for certain nutrients which arepresent in nutritional substance 520 prior to conditioning. Controller530 could modify operation of conditioner system 510 so as to preservesuch nutrients. For example, conditioner system 500 can cook thenutritional substance at a lower temperature and/or for a shorterduration so as to minimize nutrient loss. The consumer's 540 needsand/or desires may be related to particular nutritional, organoleptic,an/or aesthetic values, and may additionally be related to othernutritional substance attributes that are retrievable through thenutritional substance database 550 using a dynamic informationidentifier, such as nutritional substance additives, preservatives,genetic modifications, origins, potential conditioning parameters, andtraceability. Further, the consumer's needs and/or desires could be partof a consumer profile provided to the controller 530 through theconsumer interface 560 or otherwise available to controller 530. Theconsumer's needs and/or desires could be exclusionary in nature, forexample no products of animal origin, no peanuts or peanut-derivedproducts, no farm raised products, no pork products, or no importedproducts. In these cases, the nutritional substance database 550 couldprovide information that would prevent the consumer from preparingand/or consuming products that the consumer cannot, should not, orprefers not to consume.

The consumer's 540 organoleptic and/or aesthetic desires could includehow rare or well done they prefer a particular nutritional substance tobe prepared. For example, consumer 540 may prefer his vegetables to becrisp or pasta to be prepared al dente. With such information providedby consumer 540 to controller 530 through consumer interface 560,controller 530 can dynamically modify operation of conditioner system510 responsive to the consumer information and provide a nutritionalsubstance 520 according to the consumer's desires. In addition, theconsumer may input certain known or consumer estimated attributes of thenutritional substance 520 in place of them being detected using aninformation substance reader 590 or attribute sensors 591 when thesensors and/or reader are not available.

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, controller 530receives information regarding the history of nutritional substance 520,current information on nutritional substance 520 (e.g. weight), andconsumer 540 needs and/or desires, and dynamically modifies operation ofconditioner system 510 responsive to the information so as to provide anutritional substance according to the consumer's needs and/or desires.For example, if nutritional substance 520 is a steak, controller 530would receive reference information regarding the steak, nutritionalsubstance 520, from nutritional substance reader 590, from attributesensors 591, including optionally from a weight measurement sensor todetermine the weight of the steak. Controller 530 would use thisreference information to obtain information about the steak fromnutritional substance database 550, including using the weight todetermine more precise ΔN and other organoleptic, nutritional, andaesthetic properties of the steak. Controller 530 could also receivecurrent information about the steak from nutritional substance reader590 and/or conditioner 510. Additionally, controller 530 could receiveconsumer 540 preferences from consumer interface 560. Then, thecontroller 530 may determine potential organoleptic, nutritional, andaesthetic values that may result from various conditioning options forthe steak including the associated ΔN values that may result from eachof the conditioning options. Next the consumer may enter which of theconditioning options they desire in consumer interface 560. Thecontroller 530 could then modify an existing, or develop a newconditioning protocol to condition the steak to the consumer'spreference based on various sensed attributes of the steak, includingfor example, the weight and color of the steak. For example, in oneembodiment, a color sensor may be able to determine the leanness of asteak and implement an optimal condition regime based on the fatcontent, starting temperature, and weight of the steak. Finally,controller 530 could receive information from conditioner system 510during the conditioning of the steak, nutritional substance 520.Responsive to some or all of such information, controller 530 woulddynamically modify the cooking and/or recipe chosen or adapted for thesteak to preserve, optimize, or enhance organoleptic, nutritional, andaesthetic properties to meet consumer 540 needs and/or the desiredorganoleptic, nutritional, and aesthetic properties or ΔN based on thecondition option entered by the consumer. For example, the steak couldbe cooked slowly to preserve iron levels within the meat, and alsocooked to well-done to meet consumer's 540 taste or cooked in anotherfashion to overall minimize ΔN.

FIG. 8 shows an embodiment of conditioning module 500 of the presentinvention. Conditioner system 510 receives nutritional substance 520 forconditioning before it is delivered to consumer 540. Controller 530 isoperably connected to conditioner system 510. In fact, controller 530may be integrated within conditioner system 510, although in FIG. 8, itis shown as a separate device. When conditioner system 510 receivesnutritional substance 520 for conditioning, nutritional substance reader590 either receives information regarding nutritional substance 520 andprovides it to controller 530, which is the case if the nutritionalsubstance 520 contains a label which includes the information aboutnutritional substance 520, and/or the nutritional substance reader 590receives reference information, such as a dynamic informationidentifier, and provides it to controller 530, allowing retrieval of theinformation about nutritional substance 520 from nutritional substancedatabase 550, which is the case when the nutritional substance isassociated with, or provided with, a dynamic information identifier. Inthe case where nutritional substance 520 contains a label which includesinformation about nutritional substance 520, nutritional substancereader 590 reads this information, provides it to controller 530 andmakes it available to consumer 540 by means of consumer interface 560.

In an embodiment of the present invention, conditioner system 510comprises conditioner 570. Conditioner 570 is a conditioning apparatuswhich can perform a number of operations on nutritional substance 520,separately and/or at the same time. For example, conditioner 570 couldbe a combination microwave oven, convection oven, grill, andconventional oven. Controller 530 could operate conditioner 570 toexecute a sequence of conditioning cycles on nutritional substance 520to complete its conditioning.

For example, if nutritional substance 520 is a whole frozen turkey to beprepared for dinner, consumer 540 would place the turkey in conditioner570, the combination cooking unit suggested above. Controller 530 wouldreceive and/or create a protocol of conditioning cycles. Such a protocolcould be read by nutritional substance reader 590 from a label onnutritional substance 520. Alternately, a protocol of conditioningcycles could be obtained from nutritional substance database 550 throughreference information such as a dynamic information identifier, obtainedby nutritional substance reader 590 from nutritional substance 520. Forexample, a label on the turkey could be read by nutritional substancereader 590, providing reference information for the turkey, such as adynamic information identifier, which controller 530 uses to obtain anadaptive conditioning protocol or several options for adaptiveconditioning protocols that result in different ΔN values, for theturkey from nutritional substance database 550. The adaptiveconditioning protocol obtained is at least partially responsive to ΔNinformation in the nutritional substance database 550 referenced to thedynamic information identifier.

An example of such a conditioning protocol for a frozen turkey could beto operate conditioner 570, the combination cooking unit in thefollowing fashion. First, controller 530 instructs conditioner 570 touse the microwave function of the combination cooking unit to defrostthe turkey according to the conditioning protocol obtained for theturkey from nutritional substance database 550 or selected by theconsumer after presented with various conditioning options that arepredicted to result in associated ΔN values, and possibly according toinformation provided by conditioner 570, such as information fromattribute sensors regarding the weight, volume, and/or temperature ofthe turkey, regarding the defrosting process as measured by attributesensors, or information related to ΔN values provided by attributesensors before or during defrosting. Information regarding the weight ofthe turkey could be provided by a weight measurement sensor in theconditioner 570, or it could be a separate appliance or a standalonescale for example that is integrated or separate from conditioningsystem 510. Additionally, an infrared sensor 591 may detect the surfacetemperature of the turkey and/or a temperature probe may be placed inthe turkey for another level of granularity of information and feedbackon the state and varying temperatures of the turkey. Followingdefrosting of the turkey, controller 530 next instructs the combinationcooking unit to operate as a convection oven to cook the turkey,according to the conditioning protocol obtained for the turkey fromnutritional substance database 550 and modified by the feedback from theattribute sensors 591 and/or input from the consumer 540, for asufficient length of time so as to ensure that the turkey reaches theproper internal temperature to meet safety requirements, and to maximizeorganoleptic and/or nutritional properties or meet the desired ΔN orother requirements entered by the consumer 540. Alternatively, oradditionally, the conditioning protocol obtained for the turkey fromnutritional substance database 550 may depend upon a direct measurementof the internal temperature of the turkey, or a combination of measuredtemperature and time, or information related to ΔN values provided byattribute sensors before or during conditioning, including the weight ofthe turkey, color of the turkey, moisture or humidity, the ambientpressure (i.e. elevation of the conditioner), and other sensedattributes. Following the convection oven cooking of the turkey,controller 530 could instruct the combination cooking unit to grill theturkey, according to the conditioning protocol obtained and/or adaptedfor the turkey from nutritional substance database 550, for a sufficientperiod of time to create a desirable golden and crispy skin.Alternatively, or additionally, the conditioning protocol obtained forthe turkey from nutritional substance database 550 may depend upon adirect measurement by attribute sensors of a ΔN value, such as anoptical sensor to sense external aesthetic values of the turkey such ascolor, change of color, texture, or change of texture, temperature,humidity, or other attributes. In other embodiments, a scale or weightmeasurement sensor in the conditioner 570 may measure the weight of theturkey, and the conditioning protocol may be depend on the directmeasurement of the weight and modified during conditioning as the weightof the turkey changes. Alternatively, or additionally, the conditioningprotocol obtained for the turkey from nutritional substance database 550may depend upon a direct measurement by an infrared sensor of thesurface temperature of the turkey, or a combination of time, measuredaesthetic values, and/or measured surface temperature and/or measured ΔNinformation. Finally, controller 530 could instruct the combinationcooking unit to use all three cooking functions at the same time toprepare the turkey for optimal consumption according to the conditioningprotocol obtained for the turkey from nutritional substance database 550or entered by the consumer in response to the presentation of differentconditioning options and resultant ΔN values.

Alternatively, conditioner system 510 could be composed of a pluralityof conditioners 570. While an automated system for moving a nutritionalsubstance between such conditioners would be optimal, conditioner system510 could be operated manually by consumer 540 from instructionsregarding an adaptive conditioning protocol provided by the controller530 to consumer interface 560. In this embodiment, controller 530 couldprovide consumer 540 with instructions as to where to move the turkeyafter each step in the adaptive conditioning protocol. In this example,controller 530 instructs consumer 540 through consumer interface 560 tofirst place the frozen turkey in conditioner 570, a microwave oven.Controller 530 instructs the microwave oven to defrost the turkey basedon information possibly provided by nutritional substance reader 590,nutritional substance database 550 and/or attribute sensors of theconditioner 570, including weight sensors. Upon completion of defrostingby the microwave oven, controller 530 could instruct consumer 540through interface 560 to move the defrosted turkey from the microwaveoven to another conditioner 570, a convection oven. Controller 530 wouldoperate the convection oven to cook the turkey for a sufficient lengthof time so as to ensure that the turkey reaches the proper internaltemperature to meet safety requirements, and to maximize organolepticand/or nutritional properties. Finally, following the cooking cycle inthe convection oven, controller 530 could instruct consumer 540 throughconsumer interface 560 to move the turkey from the convection oven toanother conditioner 570, a grill. Controller 530 would operate the grillso as to grill the turkey for a sufficient period of time to create adesirable golden and crispy skin.

Alternatively, conditioner system 510 could be composed of a pluralityof conditioners 570; and a consumer 540 (which would include anyindividuals preparing the turkey for consumption), fulfilling additionalconditioner roles, as will be explained. While an automated system formoving a nutritional substance between such conditioners would beoptimal, conditioner system 510 could be operated manually by consumer540 from instructions regarding an adaptive conditioning protocolprovided by a consumer interface 560, which in this case could be ahandheld device such as a cellular phone, smartphone, tablet computer,PDA, or any other device useful for communicating with nutritionalsubstance database 550 and the consumer 540. The handheld deviceadditionally fulfills the roll of nutritional substance reader 590 andcontroller 530. For example, the consumer 540 can utilize a camerafunction of the handheld device to read a barcode, or QR code, on orassociated with the turkey, wherein the code provides a dynamicinformation identifier. The handheld device can then use the dynamicinformation identifier to retrieve information regarding the turkey fromnutritional substance database 550. In this example, consumer 540utilizes the handheld device to read a barcode (or any other readablecode) on the turkey, the barcode containing a dynamic informationidentifier associated with information regarding the turkey within thenutritional substance database 550, including ΔN information referencedto the dynamic information identifier. The consumer 540 uses thehandheld device to retrieve and review an adaptive conditioning protocolfrom nutritional substance database 550, and is accordingly instructedas to where to move the turkey for each step in the adaptiveconditioning protocol and further instructed on the correspondingconditioning parameters required for each step of the adaptiveconditioning protocol. The consumer 540 may also be provided variousconditioning protocols that result in various ΔN amounts and aredisplayed to the consumer. In this example, the consumer 540 may thenselect one of the adaptive conditioning protocols presented to theconsumer 540 from nutritional substance database 550 using the handhelddevice and will then be instructed to first place the frozen turkey inconditioner 570, a microwave oven, and further instructed on theadaptive conditioning parameters for the microwave oven to defrost theturkey. For a particular protocol, consumer 540 may be instructed thatupon completion of defrosting by the microwave oven, the turkey is to bemoved to another conditioner 570, a convection oven. Consumer 540 isfurther instructed on the adaptive conditioning parameters for theconvection oven to cook the turkey for a sufficient length of time so asto ensure that the turkey reaches the proper internal temperature tomeet safety requirements, and to maximize organoleptic and/ornutritional properties. Finally, consumer 540 is instructed that uponcompletion of cooking by the convection oven, the turkey is to be movedto another conditioner 570, a grill, and further instructed on theadaptive conditioning parameters for the grill so as to grill the turkeyfor a sufficient period of time to create a desirable golden and crispyskin.

In the case where conditioner system 510 is a plurality of conditioners570, it would also be possible for controller 530 to manage conditioners570 within conditioner system 510 so as to produce a complete meal, andoptionally a complete meal that minimizes certain ΔN values. Forexample, controller 530 could select conditioning protocols which wouldmaximize the use of each conditioner 570. For example, in a mealcomprising a turkey, home baked bread, and acorn squash, controller 530could stage and operate the microwave oven, convection oven, and grillto minimize preparation time for the meal by determining which itemshould be cooked in which conditioner 570, in which order, to maximizeusage of each conditioner 570 in conditioning system 510. In thisexample, while the turkey is being defrosted in the microwave oven,controller 530 could instruct consumer 540 through interface 560 toplace the bread dough in the convection oven and the acorn squash on thegrill. Following the defrosting of the turkey, when the turkey is movedto the convection oven, which finished baking the bread, the bread couldbe moved to the grill for browning, and the acorn squash could be movedto microwave oven to keep warm, until the entire meal is ready.

For example, if nutritional substance 520 is a ready-to-eat frozendinner which needs to be heated by conditioner system 510, nutritionalsubstance reader 590 would read a label on nutritional substance 520thereby receiving information regarding nutritional substance 520, andthen provide the information to controller 530. This information couldinclude creation information as to the creation of the variouscomponents which constitute the ready-to-eat dinner. This informationcould include information about where and how the corn in theready-to-eat dinner was grown, including the corn seed used, where itwas planted, how it was planted, how it was irrigated, when it waspicked, and information on fertilizers and pesticides used during itsgrowth. Additionally, this information could include the cattle lineage,health, immunization, dietary supplements that were fed to the cattlethat was slaughtered to obtain the beef in the ready-to-eat dinner.

The information from a label on nutritional substance 520 could alsoinclude information on how the components were preserved for shipmentfrom the farm or slaughterhouse on their path to the nutritionalsubstance transformer who prepared the ready-to-eat dinner. Additionalinformation could include how the nutritional substance transformertransformed the components into the ready-to-eat dinner, such as recipeused, additives to the dinner, and actual measured conditions during thetransformation into the ready-to-eat dinner. For example, theinformation from the label may also contain contingent information to beutilized to optimize a recipe based on various attribute sensors. Forexample, the label may contain information regarding optimal cookingtimes and temperatures based on the starting temperature of theread-to-eat frozen dinner as various consumers may set their freezers orrefrigerators at different temperatures.

While such information could be stored on a label located on thepackaging for nutritional substance 520 so as to be read by nutritionalsubstance reader 590, provided to controller 530, and provided toconsumer interface 560 for display to consumer 540, preferably, thelabel on the nutritional substance package includes referenceinformation, such as a dynamic information identifier, which is read bynutritional substance reader 590 and provided to controller 530 thatallows controller 530 to retrieve the information about nutritionalsubstance 520 from nutritional substance database 550, including ΔNinformation referenced to the dynamic information identifier. Further,linking consumer feedback and updates regarding observed or measuredchanges in the nutritional, organoleptic, weight, and/or aestheticvalues of nutritional substances would provide for virtually real timeupdates of ΔN information from the actual consumer.

Nutritional substance database 550 could be a database maintained by thetransformer of nutritional substance 520 for access by consumers of suchnutritional substance 520 to track or estimate changes in thenutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values of those nutritionalsubstances, as well as any other information about the nutritionalsubstance that can be tracked, including but not limited to the examplespreviously described. However, preferably, nutritional substancedatabase 550 is a database within information module 100 that ismaintained by the nutritional substance industry for all suchinformation regarding nutritional substances grown, raised, preserved,transformed, conditioned and consumed by consumer 540, in which case itis the database contained within information module 100 and alsoreferred to herein as a dynamic nutritional value database. Thenutritional substance database 550 may contain information regarding ΔNinformation for various conditioning protocols applied to specificnutritional substances 520. These ΔN values may be modified based on asensed weight of a nutritional substance 520 or other sensedcharacteristics by nutritional attribute sensors 591, and accordinglyutilized to provide precise ΔN information to a consumer 540 regardingthe particular nutritional substance 520 a consumer may consume or planon conditioning.

In an alternate embodiment of the present invention, controller 530, inaddition to providing information regarding nutritional substance 520 toconsumer 540, also receives information from conditioner system 510 onhow nutritional substance 520 was conditioned. Attribute sensors ofconditioner system 510 may measure or sense information aboutnutritional substance 520 before or during its conditioning byconditioner system 510, including information related to a nutritional,organoleptic, weight, or aesthetic value of the nutritional substance,or a ΔN, and provide such information to controller 530, so that suchinformation could also be provided to consumer 540, via consumerinterface 560. Such sensed information may further be required andutilized by an adaptive conditioning protocol.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, controller 530organizes and correlates the information it receives regardingnutritional substance 520 from the various sources of such information,including nutritional substance database 550 and attribute sensors ofthe conditioner system 510, and presents such information throughconsumer interface 560 to consumer 540 in a manner useful to consumer540. For example, such information may be provided in a manner thatassists consumer 540 in understanding how nutritional substance 520meets consumer's 540 nutritional needs before or after conditioning, orhow it meets the consumer's needs based on various proposed conditioningparameters. Thus, in one example, the conditioner system may sense aninitial weight of the nutritional substance 520, and determine aninitial ΔN value prior to conditioning the food based on the weight ofthe substance and the information in the nutritional substance database550. Then, the consumer 540 could be presented with various conditioningoptions, and ΔN values associated with each option so a consumer 540 maydetermine what is the optimal conditioning method based on their needs.After the consumer 540 selects a conditioning option, and theconditioner 570 conditions the nutritional substance 520, the controller530 may determine the final nutritional value or ΔN value of thenutritional substance based on the weight, temperature, color,conditioning protocol and reference information in the nutritionalsubstance database 550. Thus, the consumer 540 can track the preciseamount of nutrition ingested during the meal. Accordingly, thecontroller 530 could organize this information regarding nutritionalsubstance 520 to track consumer's 540 weight loss program. Controller530 could have access to, or maintain, information regarding consumer540, so as to track and assist consumer 540 in meeting their specificnutritional needs and potentially suggest optimal weights of nutritionalsubstance 540 and/or conditioning protocols to meet a consumer's 540goals.

In another embodiment of the present invention conditioner system 510could be a plurality of conditioner devices which can be selectivelyoperated by controller 530 to prepare nutritional substance 520.Conditioner system 510 can be either a single conditioning device, suchas a microwave oven, toaster oven, conventional oven, toaster, blender,steamer, stovetop, or human cook. Conditioner system 510 may be aplurality of conditioners 570. In the case where a plurality ofconditioners 570 comprise conditioner system 510, nutritional substance520 may be manually or automatically transferred between conditioners570 for eventual transfer to consumer 540.

Nutritional substance reader 590 may be an automatic reader such as abarcode reader, QR code reader, or RFID sensor which receivesinformation from nutritional substance 520 or a reference code fromnutritional substance 520, such as a dynamic information identifier, andprovides this information to controller 530. Nutritional substancereader 590 might also be a manual entry system where the reference code,such as a dynamic information identifier associated with, or providedwith the nutritional substance 520 is manually entered into nutritionalsubstance reader 590 for controller 530.

Nutritional substance database 550 could be a flat database, relationaldatabase or, preferably, a multi-dimensional database. Nutritionalsubstance database 550 could be local but, preferably, it would belocated remotely, such as on the internet, and accessed via atelecommunication system, such as a wireless telecommunication system.Controller 530 can be implemented using a computing device, such as amicro-controller, micro-processor, personal computer, or tabletcomputer. Controller 530 could be integrated to include nutritionalsubstance reader 590, consumer interface 560, and/or nutritionalsubstance database 550. Additionally, controller 530 may be integratedin conditioner system 510, including integration into conditioner 570.

It is important to note that while FIGS. 6-9 of various embodiments ofthe present invention show nutritional substance database 550 as part ofthe conditioner module 500, they are in no way limited to thisinterpretation. It is understood that this convention is only one way ofillustrating the inventions described herein, and it is furtherunderstood that this is in no way limiting to the scope of the presentinvention. The same is understood for recipe database 555, consumerdatabase 580, and nutritional substance industry database 558. Forexample, any of nutritional substance database 550, recipe database 555,consumer database 580, and nutritional substance industry database 558can be contained within information module 100 or within conditionermodule 500.

Consumer interface 560 can be implemented as a display device mounted oncontroller 530, conditioner system 510, or conditioner 570. However,consumer interface 560 is preferably a tablet computer, personalcomputer, personal assistant, or smartphone, running appropriatesoftware, such as an application.

While conditioner module 500 can be located in the consumer's home,conditioner module 500 may be located at a restaurant or other foodservice establishment for use in preparing nutritional substances 520for consumers who patronize such an establishment. Additionally,conditioner module 500 could be located at a nutritional substanceseller such as a grocery store or health food store for preparation ofnutritional substances 520 purchased by consumers at such anestablishment. It could be foreseen that conditioner modules 500 couldbecome standalone businesses where consumers select nutritionalsubstances for preparation at the establishment or removal from theestablishment for consumption elsewhere.

Additionally, controller 530 uses nutritional substance informationretrieved by nutritional substance reader 590 from nutritional substance520, or retrieved from nutritional substance database 550 usingreference information obtained by nutritional substance reader 590 fromnutritional substance 520, to dynamically modify the operation ofconditioner system 510 to maintain nutritional, organoleptic, andaesthetic properties of nutritional substance 520. For example, if thenutritional substance 520 is a ready-to-eat dinner, controller 530 couldmodify the instructions to conditioner system 530 in response to sourceand ΔN information regarding corn used in the ready-to-eat dinner suchthat a temperature and cooking duration can be modified to affect thenutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic properties of the corn. Further,the dynamically modified conditioning parameters, also referred toherein as adaptive conditioning parameters, may be directly intended tooptimize a nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic property of the corntargeted by the transformer of the ready-to-eat dinner duringtransformation.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the label on nutritionalsubstance 520 could contain the conditioning instructions fornutritional substance 520, or a reference, such as a dynamic informationidentifier, to such conditioning instructions in nutritional substancedatabase 550. In some embodiments, the label on the nutritionalsubstance 520 could contain a variety of conditioning instructions andan associated ΔN value by weight of the nutritional substance 520 foreach conditioning option. This may also include various contingentconditioning instructions, including weight based, or temperature basedconditioning instructions as described herein. In operation, this wouldallow controller 530 to obtain information about nutritional substance520 on how to dynamically operate conditioner system 510 to conditionnutritional substance 520, without consumer intervention based on theweight of the nutritional substance 520 as determined by a weight sensoror scale integrated with the conditioner 570 or separately connected tothe conditioning system 100 as a standalone appliance. Additionally,adaptive conditioning instructions for nutritional substance 520 couldbe provided for a variety of different conditioner systems 510, orconditioners 570, and controller could select the proper adaptiveconditioning instructions, based on, for example, a desired ΔN value andthe weight of the nutritional substance 520. The dynamic operation ofconditioner system 510 may be directly intended to optimize anutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic property of the nutritionalsubstance targeted by the transformer of the nutritional substanceduring transformation. In such a case, the operation of conditionersystem 510 is according to adaptive conditioning parameters determinedby the transformer and responsive to the transformer's knowledge of posttransformation residual nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic values.The transformer's knowledge of post transformation residual nutritional,organoleptic, or aesthetic values is preferably determined bymeasurements made during or at completion of transformation, such asdata obtained from nutritional substance attribute sensors, includingweight sensors.

Adaptive control is the control method used by a controller adapts to acontrolled system with parameters which vary or are initially uncertain.In the context of the present disclosure, adaptive control is providedby an adaptive nutritional substance conditioning system responsive toinformation regarding a nutritional or organoleptic value, including theweight of the substance 520, hydration of the substance 520, or othersensed attributes, before and during conditioning. In an exemplaryembodiment the adaptive nutritional substance conditioning systemincludes a dynamic information identifier associated with a nutritionalsubstance by a provider of the nutritional substance and referenced to anutritional or organoleptic value determined prior to conditioning. Anattribute sensor is provided for sensing information related to thenutritional or organoleptic value during conditioning, which may includea weight sensor or scale. The weight sensor or scale may be integratedwith the conditioner 570, to allow the continuous sensing of the weightof the nutritional substance 520 during conditioning. Various otherattribute sensors may be included, including (1) weight, (2) a visiblelight camera, (3) and infrared camera, (3) ambient moisture, (4) ambienttemperature, (5) a wireless probe or (6) a spectrometer sensor. A readerreads the dynamic information identifier and retrieves adaptiveconditioning parameters referenced to the dynamic informationidentifier. A controller is provided and configured to provide adaptiveconditioning parameters responsive to the nutritional or organolepticvalue determined prior to conditioning, the information sensed duringconditioning, for maintaining a target post conditioning residualnutritional or organoleptic value. In another exemplary embodiment anadaptive nutritional substance conditioning system includes an attributesensor for obtaining information related to a nutritional ororganoleptic value prior to conditioning and during conditioning. Adatabase is provided comprising historical attribute information forknown nutritional substances at known nutritional or organolepticvalues. The system also includes a controller configured to provideadaptive conditioning parameters responsive to sensing informationobtained prior to conditioning, sensing information obtained duringconditioning, and a desired target for the nutritional or organolepticvalue following conditioning.

In an embodiment, information for the adaptive conditioning of anutritional substance, responsive to a post transformation residualnutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value of the nutritionalsubstance or component nutritional substances thereof, as measured bythe transformer, is provided by the transformer with the nutritionalsubstance. Such adaptive conditioning information may be provided in anyknown manner, to be directly read by a reader of the conditioningmodule, including, but not limited to a dedicated part of a conditioningappliance, a smartphone, or a consumer. Labeling or tags provided withthe nutritional substance, such as, but not limited to, QR codes, RFIDtags, or written language instructions, could directly communicate theadaptive conditioning information to a reader of the conditioningmodule, such as an optical scanner, a RFID reader, or a consumer,respectively. Such adaptive conditioning information would comprise oneor more adaptive conditioning sequences responsive to the posttransformation residual nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic valueand further responsive to, and unique to, one or more target postconditioning residual nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic values,including the weight of the nutritional substance 520. The one or moretarget post conditioning residual values are predetermined by thetransformer and communicated to the consumer as options, such as throughwritten language instructions provided with the nutritional substance,or through a consumer interface of the conditioning module, including,but not limited to, the screen of a conditioning appliance orsmartphone. The post adaptive conditioning residual values of atransformed nutritional substance may be determined by the transformerin any known fashion, including, but not limited to, knowledge of a posttransformation nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value andestimation of a ΔN associated with specific adaptive conditioningsequences based on historical data regarding ΔNs, knowledge of a posttransformation nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value andcalculation of a ΔN associated with specific adaptive conditioningsequences based on algorithms developed using historical data regardingΔNs, or by measurement of the post conditioning residual value afterconditioning by specific adaptive conditioning sequences, such as in thetransformer's test kitchen or laboratory. Upon selection of the desiredoption, the corresponding adaptive conditioning sequence can be providedto the controller of the conditioning module. The adaptive conditioningsequence can be entered into the controller of the conditioningappliance manually by the consumer, or might be entered directly by thereader of the conditioning appliance, or by a smartphone communicatingin a wired or wireless fashion with the conditioning appliance.

In another embodiment, such adaptive conditioning information may beprovided by reference to a unique identifier provided with thenutritional substance, wherein the unique identifier may be read by areader of the conditioning module, including, but not limited to adedicated part of a conditioning appliance or a smartphone. Labeling ortags provided with the nutritional substance, such as, but not limitedto, QR codes, RFID tags, or written language instructions, couldcommunicate the unique identifier referenced to the adaptiveconditioning information to a reader of the conditioning module, such asan optical scanner for scanning a QR code or a RFID reader for scanninga RFID tag. The unique identifier could then be used to retrieve theadaptive conditioning information referenced to it from an adaptiveconditioning database. Such a database might be an independent databasemaintained by the transformer of the nutritional substance or maintainedby the nutritional substance industry, and may further be part of thenutritional substance industry database 558 or a part of any databasewithin the nutritional substance industry database 558. The adaptiveconditioning information would comprise one or more adaptiveconditioning sequences responsive to the post transformation residualnutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value and further responsive to,and unique to, one or more target post conditioning residualnutritional, organoleptic, weight, or aesthetic values. The one or moretarget post conditioning residual values are predetermined by thetransformer and communicated to the consumer as options, such as througha consumer interface of the conditioning module, including, but notlimited to, the screen of a conditioning appliance or smartphone. Thepost adaptive conditioning residual values of a transformed nutritionalsubstance may be determined by the transformer in any known fashion,including, but not limited to, knowledge of a post transformationnutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value and estimation of a ΔNassociated with specific adaptive conditioning sequences based onhistorical data regarding ΔNs, knowledge of a post transformationnutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value and calculation of a ΔNassociated with specific adaptive conditioning sequences based onalgorithms developed using historical data regarding ΔNs, or bymeasurement of the post conditioning residual value after conditioningby specific adaptive conditioning sequences, such as in thetransformer's test kitchen or laboratory. Upon selection of the desiredoption, the corresponding adaptive conditioning sequence can be providedto the controller of the conditioning module. The adaptive conditioningsequence can be entered into the controller of the conditioningappliance manually by the consumer, or might be entered directly by thereader of the conditioning appliance, or by a smartphone communicatingin a wired or wireless fashion with the conditioning appliance.

Regardless of whether the adaptive conditioning information is provideddirectly by the nutritional substance or provided by reference to aunique identifier provided with the nutritional substance, theconditioning appliance may be provided with nutritional substanceattribute sensors and the adaptive conditioning sequence may requirefeedback from some or all of the attribute sensors, in which case thenutritional substance is adaptively conditioned responsive to posttransformation nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic values determinedby the transformer, target post conditioning nutritional, organoleptic,or aesthetic values determined by the transformer and selected by theconsumer, and feedback from nutritional substance attribute sensorsprovided before or during conditioning. Such conditioning appliances andadaptive conditioning sequences may be particularly effective inachieving the same desired post conditioning results from differentconditioning appliances, different conditioning appliance model numbers,and conditioning appliances from different manufacturers.

In an embodiment of the present invention, nutritional substance reader590 and/or attribute sensors of conditioner system 510 measure or senseinformation about the current state of nutritional substance 520,particularly about a nutritional, weight, organoleptic, or aestheticvalue, and provides such information to controller 530 before or duringconditioning to allow controller 530 to dynamically modify operation ofconditioner system 510.

In an additional embodiment of the present invention, consumer 540provides information regarding their needs and/or desires with regard tothe nutritional substance 520 to consumer interface 560. Consumerinterface 560 provides this information to controller 530 so as to allowcontroller 530 to dynamically modify conditioning parameters used byconditioner system 510 in the conditioning of nutritional substance 520,or to request from nutritional substance database 550 dynamicallymodified conditioning parameters to be used by conditioner system 510 inthe conditioning of nutritional substance 520. Consumer's 540 needsand/or desires could include nutritional parameters, taste parameters,aesthetic parameters. For example, consumer 540 may have needs forcertain nutrients which are present in nutritional substance 520 priorto conditioning. Controller 530 could modify operation of conditionersystem 510 so as to preserve such nutrients based, for example, on theweight, temperature, or color of the substance. For example, conditionersystem 500 can cook the nutritional substance at a lower temperatureand/or for a shorter duration so as to minimize nutrient loss, anddepending on the overall weight, starting temperature, of the substancemay target a specific quantity of a certain nutrient. The consumer's 540needs and/or desires may be related to particular nutritional,organoleptic, an/or aesthetic values, and may additionally be related toother nutritional substance attributes that are retrievable through thenutritional substance database 550 using a dynamic informationidentifier, such as nutritional substance additives, preservatives,genetic modifications, origins, and traceability. Further, theconsumer's needs and/or desires could be part of a consumer profileprovided to the controller 530 through the consumer interface 560 orotherwise available to controller 530. The consumer's needs and/ordesires could be exclusionary in nature, for example no products ofanimal origin, no peanuts or peanut-derived products, no farm raisedproducts, no pork products, no horsemeat products, or no importedproducts. In these cases, the nutritional substance database 550 couldprovide information that would prevent the consumer from preparingand/or consuming products that the consumer cannot, should not, orprefers not to consume.

The consumer's 540 nutritional, organoleptic or aesthetic desires couldinclude how rare or well done they prefer a particular nutritionalsubstance to be prepared. For example, consumer 540 may prefer hisvegetables to be crisp or pasta to be prepared al dente. With suchinformation provided by consumer 540 to controller 530 through consumerinterface 560, controller 530 can dynamically modify operation ofconditioner system 510 responsive to the consumer information andprovide a nutritional substance according to the consumer's desires.

In an embodiment of the present invention, controller 530 receivesinformation regarding the history of nutritional substance 520, currentinformation on nutritional substance 520, including informationregarding a ΔN and weight, and consumer 540 needs or desires, anddynamically modifies operation of conditioner system 510 responsive tothe information so as to provide a nutritional substance according tothe consumer's needs or desires. For example, if nutritional substance520 is a steak, controller 530 would receive reference information, suchas a dynamic information identifier, regarding the steak, nutritionalsubstance 520, from nutritional substance reader 590, and determine theweight of the steak, using a scale or other weight sensor. Controller530 would use this reference information to obtain information about thesteak from nutritional substance database 550, including informationregarding a ΔN and modify the ΔN value based on the weight detected.Controller 530 could also receive current information about the steakfrom nutritional substance reader 590 or from other attribute sensors ofthe conditioner 510. Additionally, controller 530 could receive consumer540 preferences from consumer interface 560. Finally, controller 530could receive information from attribute sensors of the conditionersystem 510 during the conditioning of the steak, nutritional substance520, including the weight of the steak. Using some or all of suchinformation, controller 530 would dynamically modify the cooking of thesteak to preserve, optimize, or enhance organoleptic, nutritional, andaesthetic properties to meet the consumer's 540 needs. For example, thesteak could be cooked slowly to preserve iron levels within the meat,and also cooked to well-done to meet consumer's 540 taste.

In a further embodiment, the consumer may provide experience input, suchas through consumer interface 560, regarding his experience andsatisfaction with the adaptively conditioned nutritional substance. Suchexperience input may be stored by controller 530, so that it can beutilized in the future for possible further modification of conditioningparameters for similar nutritional substance. In this way, thecontroller learns how to adapt, or not adapt, conditioning parametersresponsive to the consumer's experience input. For example, the consumerinput through the consumer interface of a toaster oven when placing apiece of fish into the toaster oven may be that he desires the fish tobe rare after conditioning. After conditioning, the consumer may providehis experience input regarding the conditioned fish through the consumerinterface, such as by selecting a description of the conditioned fishfrom a screen providing the options of “under cooked”, “rare”, “medium”,and “well done”. If the consumer selected “under cooked”, the toasteroven controller could further modify future conditioning parameters forfish to provide longer exposure to heat. If the consumer selected“rare”, the controller would not further modify future conditioningparameters for fish. If the consumer selected “medium”, the controllercould adapt future conditioning parameters for fish to provide lessexposure to heat. If the consumer selected “well done”, the controllercould adapt future conditioning parameters for fish to provide reducedheat and duration of exposure to heat.

Conditioner system 510 can prepare a nutritional substance for consumer540 which contains a plurality of nutritional substances 520.Conditioner module 500 includes recipe database 555 which is operablyconnected to controller 530. Recipe database 555 can be part ofnutritional substance database 550, or it can be a stand-alone database.While recipe database 555 can be located locally, it is preferablyaccessible to many conditioner modules 500 through a telecommunicationssystem such as the internet, including wireless telecommunicationssystems.

Controller 530 is also preferably connected to consumer database 580.Consumer database 580 may be additionally connected to consumerinterface 560. Consumer database 580 could include consumer's 540organoleptic and nutritional needs, and consumer 540 preferences, andcould be in the form of a consumer profile custom tailored to anindividual consumer or selected from a menu of consumer profiles.Consumer database 580 may receive input regarding consumer 540 fromconsumer 540, but could also include information supplied by consumer's540 medical records, exercise records for the consumer's gym, and otherinformation sources. Consumer database 580 could include informationregarding regulatory actions and/or manufacturer warnings or recalls ofnutritional substances which may be obtained, have been obtained, or maybe prepared or consumed by the consumer. Additionally, consumer database580 could include information regarding consumer's 540 preferencesprovided by controller 530 for previous nutritional substance 520conditionings, and may further include consumer experience inputregarding his experience and satisfaction with previously conditionednutritional substances. Consumer database 580 could include consumerpreferences from external sources such as restaurants and grocery storeswhere consumer 540 purchases nutritional substances 520. Finally,consumer database 580 could include information from consumer module600, in FIG. 1.

Consumer database 580 could be a local database maintained by controller530 or consumer interface 560. Preferably, consumer database 580 is partof a nutritional substance industry database containing such informationregarding a plurality of consumers 540.

For example, controller 530 can operate to select the necessaryingredients, nutritional substance 520, to prepare a meal. In this case,nutritional substance 520 could be a plurality of nutritional substances520. In operation, consumer 540 could select a dinner menu usingconsumer interface 560. Additionally, consumer 540 could select aspecific recipe from recipe database 555 or could select a recipe sourcewithin database 555, such as low salt meals or recipes by a certainwell-known chef. Controller 530 could prepare a shopping list forconsumer 540 through consumer interface 560. Alternatively, controller530 could transmit a shopping list to a nutritional substance 520supplier such as a grocery store, so consumer 540 could pick up suchitems already selected or could have such items delivered.

Alternatively, if instructed by consumer 540 to utilize nutritionalsubstances on hand, which have been logged into controller 530 throughnutritional substance reader 590, controller 530 could modify or suggesta recipe that used only nutritional substances 520 available toconditioner module 500. For example, if consumer 540 instructsconditioner module 500 through conditioner interface 560 that consumer540 would like Italian food in the style of a well-known Italian chef,controller 530 would utilize information in its various databases toprepare such a meal. In this case, controller 530 would match itsinventory of available nutritional substances with recipes from thewell-known Italian chef in recipe database 555 and find availablerecipes. Controller 530 could select a recipe that optimized consumer's540 needs and preferences and prepare a meal using conditioner system510. Alternatively, controller 530 could present various options toconsumer 540 using consumer interface 560, highlighting features of eachavailable meal from the standpoint of consumer's 540 nutritional needsand/or preferences. In another embodiment, nutritional substances 520available to conditioner module 500 may additionally, or alternatively,comprise nutritional substances which have been logged into localstorage environments, containers, and coupons in proximity to theconditioner system 510, such as through nutritional substance readersassociated with the local storage environments, containers, and coupons.

In FIG. 9, nutritional substance database 550, recipe database 555, andconsumer database 580 are part of nutritional substance industrydatabase 558. Controller 530 would communicate with nutritionalsubstance industry database 558 through a communication system such asthe internet, and preferably a telecommunications system such aswireless telecommunications. In such an arrangement, controller 530could even verify that local supermarkets have the items in stock,retrieve and transmit a route to get to the supermarket from theconsumer's current location, and further retrieve and transmit a routeto follow within the supermarket to efficiently obtain the items.

It is important to note that while FIGS. 6-9 of various embodiments ofthe present invention show nutritional substance database 550 as part ofthe conditioner module 500, they are in no way limited to thisinterpretation. It is understood that this convention is only one way ofillustrating the inventions described herein, and it is furtherunderstood that this is in no way limiting to the scope of the presentinvention. The same is understood for recipe database 555, consumerdatabase 580, and nutritional substance industry database 558. Forexample, any of nutritional substance database 550, recipe database 555,consumer database 580, and nutritional substance industry database 558can be contained within information module 100 or within conditionermodule 500.

In an embodiment of the present invention, a consumer wishing tocondition a nutritional substance using a conditioning applianceaccording to the present invention can determine, and knowingly affect,the true residual nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value of thenutritional substance after he puts it in the conditioning appliance. Todo so, the consumer would scan a dynamic information identifier providedwith the nutritional substance using a scanner provided with, orassociated with, the conditioning appliance. This enables theconditioning appliance's controller to retrieve, from the nutritionalsubstance industry database, information related to changes innutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic values (ΔN information)referenced to the dynamic information identifier. Thereafter, theconditioning appliance controller can request and receive input from theconsumer by providing options for the consumer to choose from through aconsumer interface, also referred to herein as a dynamic nutritionalsubstance menu panel, which may be a panel, screen, keyboard, or anyknown type of user interface. The dynamic nutritional substance menupanel provides the consumer with the ability to input the desired endresults for the residual nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic valuethat will remain after conditioning, such as by choosing among differentpossible end results offered by the dynamic nutritional substance menupanel. The controller then creates, or retrieves from the nutritionalsubstance industry database, adaptive conditioning parameters that areresponsive to: the ΔN information retrieved from the nutritionalsubstance industry database using the dynamic information identifier;and the consumer input obtained through the dynamic nutritionalsubstance menu panel. It is understood that in the case of conditioningappliances provided with nutritional substance attribute sensors, theadaptive conditioning parameters may further be responsive toinformation provided by the attribute sensors before or duringconditioning, including the weight of the nutritional substance 520. Itis also understood that in the case of conditioning appliances providedwith the ability to obtain experience input from a consumer, theadaptive conditioning parameters may further be responsive toinformation provided by the consumer regarding a previous consumption ofa similar nutritional substance. These adaptive conditioning parameters,also referred to herein as an adaptive preparation sequence, are thencommunicated to the consumer for implementation through the dynamicnutritional substance menu panel, or alternatively, automaticallyimplemented by the controller.

For example, the consumer 540 is ready to prepare a macaroni and cheeseentrée using a combination microwave, convection, and grill oven,according to the present invention. Further, the consumer wants to servethe entrée as soon as possible. The consumer first uses the combinationoven's scanner to scan the dynamic information identifier provided withthe macaroni and cheese entrée. The dynamic information identifier maybe an optically readable label, an RFID tag, or any other known formatcompatible with the combination oven's scanner, attached to, orincorporated into, the nutritional substance or its packaging. Thecombination oven controller then retrieves the ΔN information referencedto the dynamic information identifier from the nutritional substanceindustry database. The conditioning appliance's controller additionallyrequests input from the consumer regarding the desired residualnutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value of the macaroni and cheeseentrée following conditioning, by providing options for the consumer tochoose from through its dynamic nutritional substance menu panel. It isunderstood that these options may be presented in any known fashion, andwhile particular presentation forms will be discussed herein, they arein no way limiting. In this example, the dynamic nutritional substancemenu panel presents options for the consumer to choose from in a formatsimilar to the options provided by routing and navigation applications(i.e. “shortest distance”, “shortest time”, “least freeway travel”, andso forth). For instance, the options provided by the dynamic nutritionalsubstance menu panel may be “fastest preparation time”, “highestnutritional value”, and “crispy topping” (corresponding to highestorganoleptic value for texture). The consumer can find out more detailedinformation regarding the residual nutritional, organoleptic, andaesthetic values that will result from a particular option by selectingthat option, whereupon the dynamic nutritional substance menu panel willprovide a summary of the corresponding residual nutritional,organoleptic, and aesthetic values, also referred to herein as anutritional substance residual value table. The dynamic nutritionalsubstance menu panel may further provide other useful information, suchas, but not limited to, the corresponding amount of conditioning timerequired to achieve the selected option. If the consumer determines thathe is not pleased with his selection based upon the more detailedinformation provided through the dynamic nutritional substance menupanel, particularly the information in the nutritional substanceresidual value table, he can return to the previous screen and chooseanother option. The consumer can continue to select options, review themore detailed information in the corresponding nutritional substanceresidual value table, as well as the other useful information provided,until he determines that an option meets his requirements. Upondetermining that an option meets his needs, particularly needs relatedto the information about residual nutritional, organoleptic, andaesthetic values summarized by the nutritional substance residual valuetable, the consumer proceeds with the option using the dynamicnutritional substance menu panel, such as by selecting “proceed”. Theconditioning appliance controller then implements the adaptivepreparation sequence, that is, the adaptive conditioning parameters thatare responsive to: the ΔN information it has retrieved from thenutritional substance industry database using the dynamic informationidentifier provided with the macaroni and cheese entrée; and theconsumer input obtained through the dynamic nutritional substance menupanel. The adaptive preparation sequence assures that the consumer willbe provided with a conditioned macaroni and cheese entrée that meets hisneeds, particularly his needs related to residual nutritional,organoleptic, and aesthetic values of the conditioned entrée.

In one example of the present invention, the consumer wishing to preparethe macaroni and cheese entrée selects the “fastest preparation time”option on the dynamic nutritional substance menu panel, as he needs toeat as soon as possible. The dynamic nutritional substance menu panelthen provides the consumer with a nutritional substance residual valuetable showing the residual nutritional, organoleptic, and aestheticvalues that will result from adaptively conditioning the macaroni andcheese entrée with the corresponding adaptive preparation sequence, andadditionally provides the amount of time required to do so. The consumerdetermines from the nutritional substance residual value table that oneof the entrée's residual nutritional values, for the purpose of thisexample, its complex carbohydrate content, will be 20% of its startingvalue. It is understood that the nutritional substance residual valuetable may provide any number of individual residual nutritional values,such as residual protein content, residual folic acid content, and soforth, and that those provided for the purpose of this example are in noway limiting. It is also understood that residual nutritional value maybe provided as an aggregated value based on several independent residualnutritional values. The consumer may additionally determine from thenutritional substance residual value table that the entrée's residualorganoleptic value for the crispness of its topping after conditioning,will be 10%, where 0% represents not at all crisp and 100% representsvery crisp. It is understood that the nutritional substance residualvalue table may provide any number of individual residual organolepticvalues, such as a rating to determine if the macaroni will be al dente,a rating for overall moistness of the casserole, and so forth, and thatthose provided for the purpose of this example are in no way limiting.It is also understood that residual organoleptic value may be providedas an aggregated value based on several independent residualorganoleptic values. The consumer also determines from the dynamicnutritional substance menu panel that the conditioning will take only 10minutes. Today, preparation time is the most important criteria to theconsumer, so he proceeds by placing the macaroni and cheese entrée intothe combination oven, closing its door, and selecting the “proceed”option on the dynamic nutritional substance menu panel. The combinationoven can now instruct the consumer through its dynamic nutritionalsubstance menu panel on the various settings and time requirements toadaptively condition the macaroni and cheese entrée according to theadaptive preparation sequence. Alternatively, the combination oven'scontroller can automatically implement the adaptive preparationsequence, so that the consumer is free to do other things while theentrée is adaptively conditioned. If the combination microwave,convection, and grill oven is provided with nutritional substanceattribute sensors, for instance weight measurement sensors, temperaturesensors, humidity sensors, or color sensors, the adaptive conditioningparameters might further be modified responsive to information providedby the attribute sensors before or during conditioning. For example, ifweight sensors are provided, the adaptive conditioning parameters may bemodified to target a specific quantity of a nutrient based on the knownquantity of this nutrition retrieved from the nutritional substancedatabase by weight and the dissipation by weight for differentconditioning protocols.

FIGS. 13a and 13b show formats according to the present invention bywhich a ΔN, and related residual and initial nutritional, organoleptic,and aesthetic values, may be expressed. The ear of corn shown on amicrophone stand and labeled “INNIT” in FIGS. 13a and 13b represents anutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value associated with anutritional substance. While any object may be chosen to represent anutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value, in a preferredembodiment, the chosen object corresponds to a logo, symbol, mascot, orother object associated with a Brand. Such a Brand might be associatedwith a nutritional substance information system according to the presentinventions, a Measurement, Inspection, Engineering, Regulatory,Certification, or other Standard, or any other Brand associated with thenutritional substance and information industry. The object chosen torepresent a nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value is alsoreferred to herein as a ΔN meter. In the following examples, the ΔNmeter is the ear of corn shown on a microphone stand and labeled “INNIT”shown in FIGS. 13a and 13b , and corresponds to the logo of the providerof a nutritional substance information system according to the presentinventions.

In FIG. 13a , a ΔN meter according to the present invention communicatesvarious items regarding a nutritional value, for instance Vitamin-Cvalue, in a corresponding nutritional substance, for instance, a cartonof orange juice provided with a dynamic information identifier. Aconsumer desiring information regarding Vitamin-C values of the orangejuice can use his smartphone to scan the dynamic information identifierand determine the desired information. In this example, the informationis presented to the consumer on the screen of his smartphone in the formof the ΔN meter shown in FIG. 13a . The ΔN meter of this examplecommunicates symbolically through color, and color changes, the initialVitamin-C value, the current Vitamin-C value, and an expired Vitamin-Cvalue. The values may be shown as relative values without units ofmeasure, as shown, or may further be provided with actual units ofmeasure. In this example, the consumer is provided with a conceptualindicator regarding how much the Vitamin-C value has degraded relativeto its initial value and where its current Vitamin-C value is relativeto the expiration value of the Vitamin-C.

In FIG. 13b , a ΔN meter according to the present invention communicatesvarious items regarding a nutritional value, for instance Vitamin-Cvalue, in a corresponding nutritional substance, for instance, a cartonof orange juice provided with a dynamic information identifier. Aconsumer desiring information regarding Vitamin-C levels of the orangejuice can use his smartphone to scan the dynamic information identifierand determine the desired information. In this example, the informationis presented to the consumer on the screen of his smartphone in the formof the ΔN meter shown in FIG. 13b . The ΔN meter of this examplecommunicates symbolically through percent fill-level, and percentfill-level changes, the initial Vitamin-C value, the current Vitamin-Cvalue, and an expired Vitamin-C value. The values may be shown asrelative values without units of measure, as shown, or may further beprovided with actual units of measure. In this example, the consumer isprovided with a conceptual indicator regarding how much the Vitamin-Cvalue has degraded relative to its initial value and where its currentVitamin-C value is relative to the expiration value of the Vitamin-C.

It is understood that ΔN meters may take many forms and communicatevarious messages regarding a ΔN value or a residual nutritional,organoleptic, and/or aesthetic value of nutritional substances, and theexamples provided above are for illustrative purposes and not intendedto be limiting in any way. It is further understood that ΔN meters maybe utilized to communicate ΔN values and residual nutritional,organoleptic, and/or aesthetic values determined or estimated in anyfashion. In preferred embodiments, the ΔN value or the residualnutritional, organoleptic, and/or aesthetic value are determinedutilizing the nutritional substance information systems disclosedherein, including systems utilizing dynamic information identifiers andcorresponding nutritional substance database, systems utilizingnutritional attribute sensors and corresponding nutritional substanceattribute library, or a combination of both.

On another day, the same consumer is again going to prepare another oneof the same macaroni and cheese entrées in his combination oven. Heremembers that the last time he did, he was impressed with the speed ofpreparation, but wished it would have had higher residual complexcarbohydrate values and also wished it had a more crispy topping. Todayhe has no time constraints, and is more interested in the residualnutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values that can be achieved. Hescans the dynamic information identifier with the scanner on hiscombination oven. The oven's controller retrieves ΔN informationreferenced to the dynamic information identifier from the nutritionalsubstance industry database and additionally requests input from theconsumer regarding the desired residual nutritional, organoleptic, oraesthetic value of the macaroni and cheese entrée followingconditioning, by providing options for the consumer to choose fromthrough its dynamic nutritional substance menu panel. The options are“fastest preparation time”, “highest nutritional value”, and “crispytopping”. The consumer selects the “highest nutritional value” optionfrom the dynamic nutritional substance menu panel, as he wants to eat ahealthy meal. The dynamic nutritional substance menu panel then providesthe consumer with a nutritional substance residual value table showingthe residual nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values that willresult from adaptively conditioning the macaroni and cheese entrée withthe corresponding adaptive preparation sequence, and additionallyprovides the amount of time required to do so. The consumer determinesfrom the nutritional substance residual value table that one of theentrée's residual nutritional values, for the purpose of this example,its complex carbohydrate content, will be 80% of its starting value. Itis understood that the nutritional substance residual value table mayprovide any number of individual residual nutritional values, such asresidual protein content, residual folic acid content, and so forth, andthat those provided for the purpose of this example are in no waylimiting. It is also understood that residual nutritional value may beprovided as an aggregated value based on several independent residualnutritional values. The consumer may also be interested in the absolutevalue of carbohydrates rather than the percentage decrease andaccordingly a weight sensor or scale may be used to determine the weightof the nutritional substance, from which the actual nutritional contentand prospective change from conditioning may be calculated. The consumermay additionally determine from the nutritional substance residual valuetable that the entrée's residual organoleptic value for the crispness ofits topping after conditioning, will be 30%, where 0% represents not atall crisp and 100% represents very crisp. It is understood that thenutritional substance residual value table may provide any number ofindividual residual organoleptic values, such as a rating to determineif the macaroni will be al dente, a rating for overall moistness of thecasserole, and so forth, and that those provided for the purpose of thisexample are in no way limiting. It is also understood that residualorganoleptic value may be provided as an aggregated value based onseveral independent residual organoleptic values. The consumer alsodetermines from the dynamic nutritional substance menu panel that theconditioning will take 40 minutes. Today, residual nutritional value isthe most important criteria to the consumer, so he proceeds by placingthe macaroni and cheese entrée into the combination oven, closing itsdoor, and selecting the “proceed” option on the dynamic nutritionalsubstance menu panel. The combination oven can now instruct the consumerthrough its dynamic nutritional substance menu panel on the varioussettings and time requirements to adaptively condition the macaroni andcheese entrée according to the corresponding adaptive preparationsequence. Alternatively, the combination oven's controller canautomatically implement the adaptive preparation sequence, so that theconsumer is free to do other things while the entrée is adaptivelyconditioned. If the combination microwave, convection, and grill oven isprovided with nutritional substance attribute sensors, such as weightsensors, the adaptive conditioning parameters might further be modifiedresponsive to information provided by the attribute sensors before orduring conditioning. In this example, the adaptive preparation sequencerequires mostly the application of convection heat with a minute ofgrill at the end of the sequence to cause a small amount of crispness inthe topping without burning the cheese exposed to the grill.

On yet another day, the same consumer is again going to prepare anotherone of the same macaroni and cheese entrées in his combination oven. Heremembers that the last time he did, he was impressed with the highresidual nutritional value of the entrée, but wondered if he couldachieve a still more crispy topping while achieving acceptable residualnutritional value. Today he has no time constraints, and is moreinterested in the residual nutritional, organoleptic, and aestheticvalues that can be achieved. He scans the dynamic information identifierwith the scanner on his combination oven. The oven's controllerretrieves ΔN information referenced to the dynamic informationidentifier from the nutritional substance industry database andadditionally requests input from the consumer regarding the desiredresidual nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value of the macaroniand cheese entrée following conditioning, by providing options for theconsumer to choose from through a consumer interface, also referred toherein as a dynamic nutritional substance menu panel. The options are“fastest preparation time”, “highest nutritional value”, and “crispytopping”. The consumer selects the “crispy topping” option from thedynamic nutritional substance menu panel, as he initially wants to findout what the residual nutritional value will be if he prepares theentrée according to his organoleptic preference for a crispy topping.The dynamic nutritional substance menu panel then provides the consumerwith a nutritional substance residual value table showing the residualnutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values that will result fromadaptively conditioning the macaroni and cheese entrée with thecorresponding adaptive preparation sequence, and additionally providesthe amount of time required to do so. On this day, the amount ofmacaroni and cheese detected by a weight sensor of the conditioningsystem 510 is less than on the other day, and the prospectivenutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values that will result fromthe proposed adaptive conditioning protocols that will be displayed onthe dynamic nutritional substance panel will be modified accordingly.The consumer determines from the nutritional substance residual valuetable that one of the entrée's residual nutritional values, for thepurpose of this example, its complex carbohydrate content, will be 75%of its starting value. It is understood that the nutritional substanceresidual value table may provide any number of individual residualnutritional values, such as residual protein content, residual folicacid content, and so forth, and that those provided for the purpose ofthis example are in no way limiting. It is also understood that residualnutritional value may be provided as an aggregated value based onseveral independent residual nutritional values. The consumer mayadditionally determine from the nutritional substance residual valuetable that the entrée's residual organoleptic value for the crispness ofits topping after conditioning, will be 97%, where 0% represents not atall crisp and 100% represents very crisp. It is understood that thenutritional substance residual value table may provide any number ofindividual residual organoleptic values, such as a rating to determineif the macaroni will be al dente, a rating for overall moistness of thecasserole, and so forth, and that those provided for the purpose of thisexample are in no way limiting. It is also understood that residualorganoleptic value may be provided as an aggregated value based onseveral independent residual organoleptic values. The consumer alsodetermines from the dynamic nutritional substance menu panel that theconditioning will take 90 minutes. Today, the residual organolepticvalue related to the topping crispness is the most important criteria tothe consumer, and he has verified that he makes only a small sacrificein the residual nutritional value to achieve this, so he proceeds byplacing the macaroni and cheese entrée into the combination oven,closing its door, and selecting the “proceed” option on the dynamicnutritional substance menu panel. The combination oven can now instructthe consumer through its dynamic nutritional substance menu panel on thevarious settings and time requirements to adaptively condition themacaroni and cheese entrée according to the corresponding adaptivepreparation sequence. Alternatively, the combination oven's controllercan automatically implement the adaptive preparation sequence, so thatthe consumer is free to do other things while the entrée is adaptivelyconditioned. If the combination microwave, convection, and grill oven isprovided with nutritional substance attribute sensors, the adaptiveconditioning parameters might further be modified responsive toinformation provided by the attribute sensors before or duringconditioning. In this example, the adaptive preparation sequencerequires mostly the application of low convection heat with 3 intervalsof 1 minute of grill at the end of the sequence to cause a significantamount of crispness in the topping.

In a further example, the combination microwave, convection, and grilloven in the used to condition the macaroni and cheese entrée is providedwith the ability to obtain experience input from the consumer. In thiscase, the adaptive conditioning parameters may further be responsive toinformation provided by the consumer regarding previous consumption ofmacaroni and cheese entrees prepared by the combination oven. Forinstance, in the past, the consumer's input regarding the desiredtexture of macaroni in a macaroni and cheese, or possible other pastaentrees, may have been “al dente”, however his corresponding experienceinput indicated that the pasta was “overcooked”. The controller of thecombination oven can modify the current adaptive conditioning parametersresponsive to the previous consumer experience input regarding macaroniand cheese.

FIG. 12 shows an alternate embodiment of a conditioner module accordingto the present invention, wherein a conditioner, also referred to hereinas a conditioning appliance, may have features enabling it tocommunicate with an alternate database that facilitates identification,and the development of optimal conditioning protocols for a nutritionalsubstance. Such features may include, but are not limited to, sensorscapable of measuring and collecting data regarding visual appearance,taste, smell, volatiles, texture, touch, sound, chemical composition,temperature, weight, volume, density, hardness, viscosity, surfacetension, and any other known physical attribute of the nutritionalsubstance, and are also referred to herein as nutritional substanceattribute sensors. These may include, but are not limited to, opticalsensors, laser sensors, cameras, electric noses, microphones, olfactorysensors, surface topography measurement equipment, three dimensionalmeasuring equipment, chemical assays, hardness measuring equipment,ultrasound equipment, impedance detectors, temperature measuringequipment, weight measurement equipment, and any known sensor capable ofproviding data regarding a physical attribute of a nutritionalsubstance. The alternate database would consist of a massive library ofnutritional substance attribute data, related to the visual appearance,taste, smell, texture, touch, weight, color, chemical composition andany other known physical attributes, referenced to correspondingnutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic states of known nutritionalsubstances, and is herein referred to as the nutritional substanceattribute library. Additionally, the alternative nutritional substancedatabase would include information regarding conditioning protocols forthe nutritional substances 520, and the resulting residual nutritional,organoleptic, and aesthetic values that will be provided based on theconditioning protocols. Furthermore, the database may also containinformation how those residual nutritional, organoleptic, and aestheticvalues will be affected based on various quantified aspects of thenutritional substances detected by the various sensors and determined bythe controller 530. For instance, the database 550 may containinformation about the resulting residual nutritional, organoleptic, andaesthetic values of a particular conditioning protocol on a particularnutritional substance 520, and additional data on how the residualnutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values would change using thesame protocol, if the nutritional substance 520 had different, weight,color, texture, hydration levels, proportions, or other attributes. Thismay take the form of different data points that are tested and inputinto the system based on conditioning various nutritional substances520, for example by conditioning the same type of nutritional substancesbut using different weights or shapes of it, and measuring the resultantresidual nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values through sensorsor human feedback. In other examples, the controller 530 may estimatethe resulting residual nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic valuesthat results from a particular conditioning protocol, on a particularnutritional substance, having particular feature or aspectsquantitatively sensed by the sensors 591. It is understood that suchconditioning appliances may also be provided with a nutritionalsubstance reader 590, such that they can interact with nutritionalsubstances provided with, and without, dynamic information identifiers.The nutritional substance attribute library may be separate fromnutritional substance industry database 558, or is preferably part ofthe nutritional substance industry database 558. Further, thenutritional substance attribute library may be separate from thenutritional substance database 550, or may exist within nutritionalsubstance database 550. In a preferred embodiment, the nutritionalsubstance attribute library coexists with the nutritional substancedatabase 550, the recipe database 555, and the consumer database 580,within the nutritional substance industry database 558.

There are many examples of sensor technology that might be utilized as anutritional substance attribute sensor, including, but are not limitedto: Surface plasmon resonance sensors (SPR) such as a cell phone basedsensor platform disclosed by Preechaburana et at, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.2012, 51, 11585-11588, “Surface plasmon resonance chemical sensing oncell phones”; SPR sensors such as those disclosed by Zhang, et al,Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, P.R. China “Detection ofpenicillin via surface plasmon resonance biosensor”; the combination ofmicrofluidics with Lab-on-a-Chip and Lab-on-a-Foil solutions disclosedby Focke, et al, www.rsc.org/loc, 19 Mar. 2010, “Lab-on-a-Foil:microfluidics on thin and flexible films”; Localized surface plasmonresponse sensors (LSPR) such as those disclosed by Roche, et al, Journalof Sensors, volume 2011, article ID 406425, doi: 10.1155/2011/406425, “Acamera phone localized surface plasmon biosensing platform towardslow-cost label-free diagnostic testing”; printed sensors such as thoseavailable from Thin Film Electronics ASA, for example the ThinfilmTime-Temperature Sensor; wireless pH sensors such as those discussed inIEE Sensors Journal, Vol 12, No. 3, March 2012 487 “A passiveradio-frequency pH sensing tag for wireless food quality monitoring”;sensing of biological quantities such as that discussed in ApplMicrobiol Biotechnol (2013) 97:1829-1840 “An overview of transducers asplatform for the rapid detection of foodborne pathogens”; cell phonebased E. Coli sensor using florescent imaging to detect bacteria in foodand water, developed at UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering andApplied Science; sensors discussed in Journal of Food Engineering 100(2010) 377-387 “Biomimetric-based odor and taste sensing systems to foodquality and safety characterization: An overview on basic principals andrecent achievements”; sensors discussed in Sensors 2010, 10, 3411-3443,doi 10.3390/s100403411 “Advanced Taste Sensors Based on ArtificialLipids with Global Selectivity to Basic Taste Qualities and HighCorrelation to Sensory Scores”; sensing described in Chem. Sci., 2012,3, 2542 “Fluorescent DNAs printed on paper: sensing food spoilage andripening in the vapor phase”; the use of a Silicon IntegratedSpectrometer to sense food for ripeness and other qualities is describedin IEEE Photonics Journal, 1 (4), p. 225-235 (2009); electronic noseslike those discussed by Walt D R., Anal chem 2005 77:A-45; electronicnoses like those discussed by Gardner J W et al., Electronic noses:principles an applications. Oxford University press, New York, 1999;colorimetric sensor arrays like those discussed by Suslick et al., AnalChem 2010 82(5):2067-2073; numerous sensing techniques described inanalytica chima acta 605 (2007) 111-129 “A review on novel developmentsand applications of immunosensors in food analysis”; numerous sensingtechniques described in J. Biophotonics 5, No. 7, 483-501 (2012)/doi10.1002/jbio.201200015 “Surface plasmon resonance based biosensortechnique: A review”; LSPR techniques to sense bitterness of teadescribed in Agric. Food Chem., 2010, 58 (14), pp 8351-8356“B-Cyclodextrin/Surface plasmon response detection system for sensingbitter astringent taste intensity of green tea catechins”; a review onnano-biosensors to measure tastes and odors discussed inBio-Nanotechnology: A revolution in food biomedical and health sciences,first edition, 2013, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. “Nano-Biosensors formimicking gustatory and olfactory senses”; techniques described inScience Daily,http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130214111612.htm, 14 Feb.2013 “World's most sensitive plasmon resonance sensor inspired by theancient roman cup”; ethylene sensors discussed in Anal. Chem., 2011, 83(16), pp 6300-6307, doi: 10.1021/ac2009756 “Electrochemical sensing ofethylene employing a thin ionic-liquid layer”; multiplex SPR techniquesdescribed in Anal Bioanl Chem (2011) 400: 3005-3011, doi10.1007/s00216-011-4973-8 “Imaging surface plasmon resonance formultiplex microassay sensing of mycotoxins”; a review of noble metalnono-optical sensors based on LSPR by Zhao, et al, “Localized surfaceplasmon resonance biosensors”; colorimetric plasmon resonance imagingdescribed by Gartia, et al, Advanced Optical Materials 2013, 1, 68-76,doi: 10.1002/adom.201200040 “Colorimetric plasmon resonance imagingusing nano Lycurgus cup arrays”; sensor using multiplex fiber-opticbiosensor implemented by integrating multiple particle plasmonresonances (PPRs), molecular bioassays, and microfluidics is disclosedby Lin, et al, Proc. SPIE 8351, Third Asia Pacific Optical SensorsConference, 835125 (Jan. 31, 2012), doi: 10.117/12.914383 “Multiplexfiber-optic biosensor using multiple particle plasmon resonances”;sensor based on multilayered graphene SPR-based transmission disclosedby Kim, et al, J. Nonosci. Nanotechnol, 2012 Jul. 12(7):5381-5“Evaluation of multi-layered graphene surface plasmon resonance-basedtransmission type fiber optic sensor”; sensors to detect Mercury valuessuch as the biosensors, chemical sensors, conductometric sensors,microcantilevel sensors, SAW sensors, piezoelectric sensors, andnanosensors similar to those described by: Selid et al, Sensors 2009, 9,5446-5459; doi: 10.3390/s90705446; and Katherine Davies, Royal Societyof Chemistry, Chemistry World, New chemosensor for mercury detection(http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issues/2005/July/mercury_detection.asp);sensors to detect caffeine values may be similar to those described by:Chung I C, et al, J Nanosci Nanotechnol. 2011 December; 11(12): 10633-8,A portable electrochemical sensor for caffeine and (−)epigallocatechingallate based on molecularly imprinted poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol)recognition element; or Ebarvia, et al, Analytical and BioanalyticalChemistry, March 2004, Volume 378, Issue 5, pp 1331-1337, Biomimeticpiezoelectric quartz sensor for caffeine based on a molecularlyimprinted polymer; or Zhao, et al,http://www.researchgate.net/publication/225410860, Department ofMaterial and Chemistry Engineering, Henan Institute of Engineering,Zhengzhou, 450007 China, Article-Voltammetric sensor for caffeine basedon a glassy carbon electrode modified with Nafion and graphene oxide;sensors to detect sugar values may be similar to those described by:Kumar, et al, Study of fiber optic sugar sensor; or Scampicchio, et al,Nanotechnology 20 135501 doi:10.1088/0957-4484/20/13/135501, Issue 13, 1Apr. 2009, Optical nanoprobes based on gold nanoparticles for sugarsensing; sensors to detect temperature values may be similar to thosemanufactured by MICRO-EPSILON, and described at www.micro-epsilon asminiature non-contact IR sensors thermoMETER CSmicro and non-contact IRsensors with laser aiming thermoMETER CSlaser; sensors for detectingtemperature values may also include any thermocouple type sensorsuitable for contact sensing of temperature. It is understood thatsensors may be configured to perform multiple test assays in a singleuse to develop a multidimensional dataset from each use.

Other examples of sensor technology that might be utilized includessensors similar to those manufactured by MICRO-EPSILON and described atwww.micro-epsilon as fixed lens color sensors color SENSOR OT-3-GL andOT-3-LU. These sensors illuminate a surface with white light and sensethe reflected color values, and are particularly useful for colorrecognition of non-homogeneous targets and glossy targets, for instance,a piece of beef or other animal tissue packaged in clear cellophane,packaged in shrink-wrap, or not currently packaged. These sensors canalso provide useful information regarding the turbidity of liquids.Alternatively, sensors may be similar to those manufactured byMICRO-EPSILON and described at www.micro-epsilon as fiber color sensors,color SENSOR LT-1-LC-20, WLCS-M-41, and LT-2. These sensors use amodulated white light LED to project a spot onto or through a target,and focusing part of the reflected or transmitted light with fiber opticonto a color detector element. Common sensing techniques include, butare not limited to: projecting a spot directly on and normal to aninspection target and focusing part of the back-scattered light withfiber optic onto a color detector; projecting a spot indirectly, that isat an angle to, an inspection target and focusing part of the reflectedlight with fiber optic onto a color detector; and projecting a spotdirectly through an inspection target and focusing part of thetransmitted light with fiber optic onto a color detector. Such anutritional substance attribute sensor may be configured to include awhite light source and color detector as a permanent part of a detector,for instance, a detector provided as part of a nutritional substancereader or dynamic appliance reader, and a coupler that enablesattachment of the detector to the mating coupler of various fiber opticprobe configurations to project light from the light source onto orthrough a target and to focus reflected or transmitted light from thetarget onto the color detector. Such fiber optic probes may be providedas a permanent part of a sealed nutritional substance package, whereinthe portions of the probe required to interface with the nutritionalsubstance are in direct contact with the nutritional substance, and themating coupler that allows removable attachment to the sensor couplerprovided with the detector is available externally of the package.Permanently incorporating the sensor probe into the package has manybenefits. The portion of the sensor probes in contact with thenutritional substance can be tailored to the specific product andpackage, while the mating coupler on the outside of the package isalways provided in the configuration compatible with the sensor coupleron the detector. This enables sensing of a wide array of packagednutritional substances without disrupting package integrity. It alsosimplifies the task greatly for a user, and ensures consistent andaccurate sensing technique.

Sensing technologies utilizing hyperspectral imaging are potentiallyuseful as nutritional substance attribute sensors, and because of theirspeed and ability to provide in-process detection, may be particularlyuseful for applications during local storage and conditioning ofnutritional substances. Hyperspectral imaging may be utilized in someembodiments of the present invention, for example, for in-lineinspection of multiple produce items, such as apples or strawberries, asthey are placed into a dynamic appliance such as a refrigerator, oralternatively, for rapid inspection of meat products such as poultry orseafood, as they are removed from a dynamic appliance such as arefrigerator, or placed into a dynamic appliance such as a toaster oven.This technology is particularly useful for identifying anomalies innutritional substances without disrupting the nutritional substance. Allsubstances have unique spectral signatures, which can be saved in alibrary. Libraries including the spectral responses of known nutritionalsubstances in known nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic conditions,and further including known sources of adulteration, such as fecalmatter, chemical contamination, micro-organisms and other pathogens ordisease conditions, can be used for comparison to spectral responses ofnutritional substances currently being sensed, and in this way thecurrently sensed nutritional substance can be quickly identifiedaccording to desired criteria. Hyperspectral sensing may further beutilized for plant and crop phenotyping, whereby a composite of anutritional substance's observable characteristics provides a uniquenutritional substance fingerprint. This can be particularly beneficialto rule out adulteration such as by partial or total ingredientsubstitution, and may be accomplished by an appropriately equippeddynamic appliance.

Sensing technologies utilizing near-infrared spectroscopy may bepotentially useful as nutritional substance attribute sensors, becauseof their ability to provide detection below the surface of a sensedobject, may be particularly useful for identifying the type andconcentration of various components of a nutritional substance. Examplesof this type of sensor include the microPHAZIR RX from Thermo FisherScientific and near-infrared technologies under development byFraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems.

Other examples of optical sensor technology that might be utilizedinclude, but are not limited to: handheld Raman spectrometers availablefrom Serstech, www.serstech.com; PinPointer™ handheld Raman spectrometeravailable from Ocean Optics, www.oceanoptics.com; TruScan RM handheldRaman spectrometer available from Thermo Fisher Scientific; nearinfra-red sensor available from Thermo Fisher Scientific; Xantus Mini™remote controlled, smartphone compatible Raman spectrometer availablefrom Rigaku, www.rigaku.com; Lighting Passport handheld or remotesmartphone compatible spectrometer from Asensetek,www.alliedscientificpro.com.

At this juncture it can be understood that a nutritional, organolepticor aesthetic value of a nutritional substance can be indicated by itsolfactory values or its taste values. Typically, but not necessarily,olfactory values and taste values are detectable by the human sense ofsmell. However, nutritional substances may emit or produce gaseouscomponents that are not detectable or discernible by the human sense ofsmell, or components not detectable or discernible by human sense oftaste, but, nevertheless, may be indicative of a particular nutritional,organoleptic, and aesthetic state of the nutritional substance. Inaddition, olfactory values and taste values can be indicative ofadulteration of nutritional substances, such as by spoilage,contamination, or substitution of other nutritional substances.

It is understood that the utilization of the nutritional substanceattribute sensors according to the present invention can providebeneficial information regarding adulteration or mislabeling ofnutritional substances.

In an example of a conditioning appliance equipped with nutritionalsubstance attribute sensors, a consumer places a turkey breast in acombination microwave, convection, and grill oven equipped withnutritional substance attribute sensors. The nutritional substanceattribute sensors collect a variety of physical attribute data from theturkey breast. The conditioning appliance's controller then transmitsthe physical attribute data collected to the nutritional substanceindustry database, for comparison to the nutritional substance attributelibrary contained therein. For example, the weight, color, temperature,texture, moisture, or other attributes of the turkey breast may bedetected and communicated to the nutritional substance attributelibrary. It is understood that while FIG. 12 shows the nutritionalsubstance industry database as part of the conditioner module, it mayreside in the information module. It is further understood that whilethe nutritional substance attribute library is shown as part of thenutritional substance industry database, this only for the purposes ofexample and not intended to be limiting in any way, and it may residewithin the information module or may exist as an independent database.When a match is found for the physical attribute data collected from theturkey breast placed in the conditioning appliance, the nutritionalsubstance industry database can determine that the matching nutritionalsubstance attribute library dataset corresponds to a turkey breast withknown nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values, and that itweighs 2 pounds, it is at a certain hue, it has a certain texture, andis at a temperature of 40 deg. F. Thereafter, the conditioning appliancecontroller can request input from the consumer by providing options forthe consumer to choose from through a consumer interface, also referredto herein as a dynamic nutritional substance menu panel, which may be apanel, screen, keyboard, or any known type of user interface. Thedynamic nutritional substance menu panel provides the consumer with theability to input the desired end results for the residual nutritional,organoleptic, or aesthetic value that will remain after conditioning,such as by choosing among different possible end results offered by thedynamic nutritional substance menu panel. The controller 530 thencreates, or retrieves from the nutritional substance industry database,adaptive conditioning parameters that are responsive to: thenutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic value information retrievedfrom the nutritional substance industry database using the nutritionalsubstance attribute library including adjustments made as necessary forthe sensor attribute data and the consumer input obtained through thedynamic nutritional substance menu panel. These adaptive conditioningparameters, also referred to herein as adaptive preparation sequence,are then communicated to the consumer for implementation through thedynamic nutritional substance menu panel, or alternatively,automatically implemented by the controller, or adapted based onfeedback from the attribute sensors 591 in the conditioner 570.

In the above example, the consumer is ready to prepare a turkey breastusing a combination microwave, convection, and grill oven equipped withnutritional substance attribute sensors. The consumer places the turkeybreast in the combination oven, where the oven's nutritional substanceattribute sensors sense various physical attribute data from the turkeybreast, for example the weight, color, temperature, and texture. Thecombination oven controller then transmits the sensed attribute data tothe nutritional substance industry database for comparison to thenutritional substance attribute library. The nutritional substanceindustry database determines that the sensed data matches thenutritional substance attribute library dataset corresponding to turkeybreast having specific nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values,and a certain weight and temperature. The conditioning appliance'scontroller additionally requests input from the consumer regarding thedesired residual nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value of theturkey breast following conditioning, by providing options for theconsumer to choose from through its dynamic nutritional substance menupanel. It is understood that these options may be presented in any knownfashion, and while particular presentation forms will be discussedherein, they are in no way limiting. In this example, the dynamicnutritional substance menu panel presents options for the consumer tochoose from in a format similar to the options provided by routing andnavigation applications (i.e. “shortest distance”, “shortest time”,“least freeway travel”, and so forth). For instance, the optionsprovided by the dynamic nutritional substance menu panel may be “fastestpreparation time”, “highest nutritional value”, and “tender”(corresponding to highest residual organoleptic value for texture). Theconsumer can find out more detailed information regarding the residualnutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values that will result from aparticular option by selecting that option, whereupon the dynamicnutritional substance menu panel will provide a summary of thecorresponding residual nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values,also referred to herein as a nutritional substance residual value table.The dynamic nutritional substance menu panel may further provide otheruseful information, such as, but not limited to, the correspondingamount of conditioning time required to achieve the selected optionbased on, among other factors, the weight of the nutritional substance.If the consumer determines that he is not pleased with his selectionbased upon the more detailed information provided through the dynamicnutritional substance menu panel, particularly the information in thenutritional substance residual value table, he can return to theprevious screen and choose another option. The consumer can continue toselect options, review the more detailed information in the nutritionalsubstance residual value table, as well as the other useful informationprovided, until he determines that an option meets his requirements.Upon determining that an option meets his needs, particularly needsrelated to the information about residual nutritional, organoleptic, andaesthetic values summarized by the nutritional substance residual valuetable, the consumer can proceed with the option by using the dynamicnutritional substance menu panel, such as by selecting “proceed”. Theconditioning appliance controller then implements adaptive conditioningparameters that are responsive to: the information it has retrieved fromthe nutritional substance industry database by comparing sensed physicalattribute data to the nutritional substance attribute library; and/orthe consumer input obtained through the dynamic nutritional substancemenu panel. These adaptive conditioning parameters, also referred toherein as adaptive preparation sequence, assure that the consumer willbe provided with an adaptively conditioned turkey breast that meets hisneeds, particularly his needs related to residual nutritional,organoleptic, and aesthetic values of the adaptively conditioned turkeybreast.

In one example of the present invention, the consumer wishing to preparethe turkey breast selects the “fastest preparation time” option on thedynamic nutritional substance menu panel, as he needs to eat as soon aspossible. The dynamic nutritional substance menu panel then provides theconsumer with a nutritional substance residual value table showing theresidual nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values that willresult from adaptively conditioning the turkey breast with thecorresponding adaptive preparation sequence, and additionally providesthe amount of time required to do so for the piece of turkey at thecertain temperature and weight, for example. The consumer determinesfrom the nutritional substance residual value table that one of theturkey breast's residual nutritional values, for the purpose of thisexample, its residual protein content, will be 60% of its starting valueor may provide the residue value or change in value in an actualquantity of protein such as 50 grams remaining or a decrease of 30 gramsof protein. It is understood that the nutritional substance residualvalue table may provide any number of individual residual nutritionalvalues, such as residual complex carbohydrate content, residual fatcontent, residual folic acid content, and so forth, and that thoseprovided for the purpose of this example are in no way limiting. It isalso understood that residual nutritional value may be provided as anaggregated value based on several independent residual nutritionalvalues. The consumer may additionally determine from the nutritionalsubstance residual value table that the turkey breast's residualorganoleptic value for tenderness after conditioning will be 10%, where0% represents not at all tender and 100% represents very tender. It isunderstood that the nutritional substance residual value table mayprovide any number of individual residual organoleptic values, such as arating to determine if the turkey breast will be well done, a rating foroverall moistness of the turkey breast, and so forth, and that thoseprovided for the purpose of this example are in no way limiting. It isalso understood that residual organoleptic value may be provided as anaggregated value based on several independent residual organolepticvalues. The consumer also determines from the dynamic nutritionalsubstance menu panel that the adaptive conditioning will take only 8minutes. Today, preparation time is the most important criteria to theconsumer, so he proceeds by selecting the “proceed” option on thedynamic nutritional substance menu panel. The combination oven can nowinstruct the consumer through its dynamic nutritional substance menupanel on the various settings and time requirements to adaptivelycondition the turkey breast according to the corresponding adaptivepreparation sequence. Alternatively, the combination oven's controllercan automatically implement the adaptive preparation sequence, so thatthe consumer is free to do other things while the turkey breast isadaptively conditioned. The adaptive preparation sequence may further beresponsive to input obtained from one or more attribute sensors duringconditioning. In this example, the adaptive preparation sequencerequires mostly the application of microwave at high intensity with afew seconds of grill at the end of the sequence to cause a small amountof crispness in the skin.

On another day, the same consumer is again going to prepare a similarturkey breast in his combination oven. He remembers that the last timehe did, he was impressed with the speed of preparation, but wished itwould have had higher residual protein value and also wished it had beenmore tender. Today he has no time constraints, and is more interested inthe residual nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values that can beachieved. He places the turkey breast in the combination oven, where theoven's nutritional substance attribute sensors sense various physicalattribute data from the turkey breast, including its weight andtemperature. The conditioning appliance's controller then transmits thephysical attribute data collected to the nutritional substance industrydatabase, for comparison to the nutritional substance attribute librarycontained therein. In other examples, the physical attributes mayinclude elevation, ambient pressure in the conditioner, texture,moisture, relative humidity in the conditioner, color of the turkey, andother attributes. When a match is found for the physical attribute datacollected from the turkey breast, the nutritional substance industrydatabase can determine that the matching nutritional substance attributelibrary dataset corresponds to a turkey breast with known nutritional,organoleptic, and aesthetic values, and that it weighs 2.2 pounds and isat a temperature of 42 deg. F. The controller additionally requestsinput from the consumer regarding the desired residual nutritional,organoleptic, or aesthetic value of the turkey breast followingconditioning, by providing options for the consumer to choose fromthrough its dynamic nutritional substance menu panel. The options are“fastest preparation time”, “highest nutritional value”, and “tender”.The consumer selects the “highest nutritional value” option from thedynamic nutritional substance menu panel, as he wants to eat a healthymeal. The dynamic nutritional substance menu panel then provides theconsumer with a nutritional substance residual value table showing theresidual nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values that willresult from adaptively conditioning the turkey breast with thecorresponding adaptive preparation sequence, and additionally providesthe amount of time required to do so. The consumer determines from thenutritional substance residual value table that one of the turkeybreast's residual nutritional values, for the purpose of this example,its protein content, will be 90% of its starting value, 90 grams totalor a change in 10 grams. It is understood that the nutritional substanceresidual value table may provide any number of individual residualnutritional values, such as residual complex carbohydrate content,residual folic acid content, residual fat content, and so forth, andthat those provided for the purpose of this example are in no waylimiting, and this data could be provided in many different forms, suchas percentages, graphs, or absolute values. It is also understood thatresidual nutritional value may be provided as an aggregated value basedon several independent residual nutritional values. The consumer mayadditionally determine from the nutritional substance residual valuetable that the turkey breast's residual organoleptic value fortenderness after conditioning will be 50%, where 0% represents not atall tender and 100% represents very tender. It is understood that thenutritional substance residual value table may provide any number ofindividual residual organoleptic values, such as a rating to determineif the turkey breast will be well done, a rating for overall moistnessof the turkey breast, and so forth, and that those provided for thepurpose of this example are in no way limiting. It is also understoodthat residual organoleptic value may be provided as an aggregated valuebased on several independent residual organoleptic values. The consumeralso determines from the dynamic nutritional substance menu panel thatthe conditioning will take 40 minutes. Today, residual nutritional valueis the most important criteria to the consumer, so he proceeds byselecting the “proceed” option on the dynamic nutritional substance menupanel. The combination oven can now instruct the consumer through itsdynamic nutritional substance menu panel on the various settings andtime requirements to adaptively condition the turkey breast according tothe corresponding adaptive preparation sequence. Alternatively, thecombination oven's controller can automatically implement the adaptivepreparation sequence, so that the consumer is free to do other thingswhile the turkey breast is adaptively conditioned. The adaptivepreparation sequence may further be responsive to input obtained fromone or more attribute sensors during conditioning. In this example, theadaptive preparation sequence requires mostly the application ofconvection heat with two minutes of grill at the end of the sequence tocause a small amount of crispness in the skin without burning the skinexposed to the grill.

On yet another day, the same consumer is again going to prepare asimilar turkey breast in his combination oven. He remembers that thelast time he did this he was impressed with the high residualnutritional value of the turkey breast, but wondered if he could achievea still more tender turkey breast with acceptable residual nutritionalvalues. Today he has no time constraints, and is more interested in theresidual nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values that can beachieved. He places the turkey breast in the combination oven, where theoven's nutritional substance attribute sensors sense various physicalattribute data from the turkey breast. The conditioning appliance'scontroller then transmits the physical attribute data collected to thenutritional substance industry database, for comparison to thenutritional substance attribute library contained therein. When a matchis found for the physical attribute data collected from the turkeybreast, the nutritional substance industry database can determine thatthe matching nutritional substance attribute library dataset correspondsto a turkey breast with known nutritional, organoleptic, and aestheticvalues, and that it weighs 2.1 pounds and is at a temperature of 41 deg.F. In other examples, the physical attributes may include elevation,ambient pressure in the conditioner, texture, moisture, relativehumidity in the conditioner, color of the turkey, and other attributes.The controller additionally requests input from the consumer regardingthe desired residual nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value ofthe turkey breast following conditioning, by providing options for theconsumer to choose from through its dynamic nutritional substance menupanel. The options are “fastest preparation time”, “highest nutritionalvalue”, and “tender”. The consumer selects the “tender” option from thedynamic nutritional substance menu panel, as he prefers to eat a tenderpiece of turkey breast if he can determine that it is still a healthymeal. The dynamic nutritional substance menu panel then provides theconsumer with a nutritional substance residual value table showing theresidual nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values that willresult from adaptively conditioning the turkey breast with thecorresponding adaptive preparation sequence, and additionally providesthe amount of time required to do so. The consumer determines from thenutritional substance residual value table that one of the turkeybreast's residual nutritional values, for the purpose of this example,its residual protein content, will be 88% of its starting value. It isunderstood that the nutritional substance residual value table mayprovide any number of individual residual nutritional values, such asresidual complex carbohydrate content, residual folic acid content,residual fat content, and so forth, and that those provided for thepurpose of this example are in no way limiting. It is also understoodthat residual nutritional value may be provided as an aggregated valuebased on several independent residual nutritional values. The consumermay additionally determine from the nutritional substance residual valuetable that the turkey breast's residual organoleptic value fortenderness after conditioning will be 98%, where 0% represents not atall tender and 100% represents very tender. It is understood that thenutritional substance residual value table may provide any number ofindividual residual organoleptic values, such as a rating to determineif the turkey breast will be well done, a rating for overall moistnessof the turkey breast, and so forth, and that those provided for thepurpose of this example are in no way limiting. It is also understoodthat residual organoleptic value may be provided as an aggregated valuebased on several independent residual organoleptic values. The consumeralso determines from the dynamic nutritional substance menu panel thatthe conditioning will take 80 minutes. Today, residual organolepticvalue, specifically tenderness, is the most important criteria to theconsumer, so he proceeds by selecting the “proceed” option on thedynamic nutritional substance menu panel. The combination oven can nowinstruct the consumer through its dynamic nutritional substance menupanel on the various settings and time requirements to adaptivelycondition the turkey breast according to the corresponding adaptivepreparation sequence. Alternatively, the combination oven's controllercan automatically implement the adaptive preparation sequence, so thatthe consumer is free to do other things while the turkey breast isadaptively conditioned. The adaptive preparation sequence may further beresponsive to input obtained from one or more attribute sensors duringconditioning. In this example, the adaptive preparation sequencerequires mostly the application of low convection heat with two cyclesof 3 minutes of grill at the end of the sequence to cause a moderateamount of crispness in the skin.

In a further embodiment, the consumer may provide experience input, suchas through consumer interface 560, regarding his experience andsatisfaction with the adaptively conditioned nutritional substance. Suchexperience input may be stored by controller 530, so that it can beutilized in the future for possible further modification of conditioningparameters for similar nutritional substances. In this way, thecontroller learns how to adapt, or not adapt, conditioning parametersresponsive to the consumer's experience input. For example, the consumerinput through the consumer interface of a toaster oven when placing aturkey breast into the toaster oven may be that he desires it to be rareafter conditioning. After conditioning, the consumer may provide hisexperience input regarding the conditioned turkey breast, such as byselecting a description of the conditioned turkey breast from a screenproviding the options of “under cooked”, “rare”, “medium”, and “welldone”. If the consumer selected “under cooked”, the toaster oven'scontroller could further modify future conditioning parameters forturkey breast to provide longer exposure to heat. If the consumerselected “rare”, the controller would not further modify futureconditioning parameters for turkey breast. If the consumer selected“medium”, the controller could adapt future conditioning parameters forturkey breast to provide less exposure to heat. If the consumer selected“well done”, the controller could adapt future conditioning parametersfor turkey breast to provide reduced heat and duration of exposure toheat.

In another embodiment, a conditioning appliance is provided withnutritional substance reader 590 and nutritional substance attributesensors 591. The nutritional substance reader 590 scans a dynamicinformation identifier associated with a nutritional substance, and thenutritional substance attribute sensors 591 scan the nutritionalsubstance. The controller of the conditioning appliance uses the dynamicinformation identifier to determine the nutritional substance contentand current nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value referenced tothe dynamic information identifier in the nutritional substancedatabase. The controller uses the data obtained from the nutritionalsubstance attribute sensors to determine the nutritional substancecontent and current nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic valuecorresponding to the values in the nutritional substance attributelibrary, including for example the weight of the nutritional substance.In other examples, the physical attributes may include elevation,ambient pressure in the conditioner, texture, moisture, relativehumidity in the conditioner, color of the turkey, and other attributes.The controller compares the nutritional substance content andnutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value information determinedfrom the nutritional substance database to that determined from thenutritional substance attribute library. If the information isdetermined to be similar, adaptive conditioning parameters responsive tothe current nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values of thenutritional substance can be provided. If the information is determinedto be dissimilar, adaptive conditioning parameters may not be provided,or alternatively, the consumer may be provided with options through theconsumer interface. Options may include, but are not limited to,proceeding with conditioning by manually entered conditioningparameters; proceeding with adaptive conditioning parameters responsiveto information determined from nutritional substance database;proceeding with adaptive conditioning parameters responsive toinformation determined from nutritional substance attribute library; ornot proceeding with conditioning.

FIG. 14 illustrates an embodiment of a process for adapting aconditioning protocol 610 to the following factors: (1) consumer input620, (2) nutritional data 630 or data sets on changes in nutritionresulting from various conditioning protocols (3) sensed attributes 640of a specific nutritional substance 520 useful for determining theeffect of the conditioning protocol 610 on the actual substance 520, and(5) geographic location data 650 regarding the location of the food thatcan be used to determine the ambient pressure, elevation, humidity, orother location based factors that may be relevant to conditioning anutritional substance 520 and changes in the resulting nutritional,organoleptic, or aesthetic values from conditioning. These fiveattributes or others may be utilized to modify or adjust a conditioningprotocol 610 to optimize it for a particular nutritional substance 520,and produce a modified conditioning protocol 660. For instance, aconditioning protocol 610 for a certain type of nutritional substance,520, for example, salmon, may be accessed from a nutritional substancedatabase 550 by a controller 530, in order to retrieve of potentialcondition protocols 610 or a base conditioning protocol that may befurther refined or selected to optimize the conditioning protocol 610for the particular nutritional substance 520 (i.e. piece of salmon) andto optimize it to the consumer preferences based on consumer input 620.Then once the conditioner 570 and controller 530 receives inputregarding from attribute sensors 591, from the consumer 540, from GPSdata 650, from the nutritional values database 550, and any otherrelevant sources, this data may be utilized to modify the conditioningprotocol 660 to optimize it for a particular amount or portion ofnutritional substance 520.

For instance, a piece of salmon may be scanned with the nutritionalsubstance reader 590, or identified using the attribute sensors 591. Thesensors 591 used to identify the nutritional substance 520 may becolorimetric sensor arrays, color sensors, spectrometer, standardoptical detectors or others matching profiles using statistical analysisor other methods as disclosed herein. Next once the category or type ofnutritional substance 520 is identified, (i.e. salmon) the specificattributes of that nutritional substance 520 may be identified andstored as sensed attributes 640. These sensed attributes 640 may includethe initial weight of the salmon, the color (i.e. wild versus farmraised), the initial temperature, the texture, the shape, and otherrelevant factors. In other embodiments, these attributes may be whollyor partially obtained from a nutritional substance reader 590 associatedwith the conditioner 570 that reads a nutritional substance identifierwhere the nutritional substance is pre weighed, and the other attributesare predetermined before packaging and provided on information in alabel or in a database. Next, the conditioner optionally may considerlocation data, including using GPS, or consumer input 620 to determinethe local ambient conditions that are relevant to conditioning. Forexample, certain climates may be more humid or certain geographiclocations may have significantly different elevations that substantiallyaffect cooking. Next, various information or nutritional data 630 may bestored in the nutritional information database 550 regarding thenutritional substance 520 (i.e. salmon) and how the nutritional,organoleptic, or aesthetic values of the nutritional substance 520changes based on various conditioning protocols. This nutritional data630, or change in nutritional data may be obtained from prior tests ofconditioning protocols on various nutritional substances 520, includingthe same type of nutritional substances but in different quantities,initial temperatures, initial colors, and other sensed attributes 640.Accordingly, this information may be utilized to predict how aparticular nutritional substance 520 will change over variousconditioning protocols based on its unique sensed attributes 640,including how its various nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic valueswill change.

A database 550 that provides information on sensed attributes 640 mayinclude information on, various weights, lengths, and shapes of salmonthat were conditioned using various protocols and the resultingnutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic values that were recorded. Forinstance, a larger piece of salmon will need to be cooked longer toensure the inside is not raw, but also that the outside is not tough andrubbery. Contrarily, a smaller piece of salmon will need a differentconditioning protocol to optimally condition the salmon withoutovercooking it, or denaturing too many of its omega three fatty acids.Accordingly, the database 550 may have the appropriate cooking time forvarious weights of salmon, and use that to extrapolate in between for aparticular piece of salmon or to accommodate its precise sensed weight.Additionally, the same could be performed for starting temperature,color and other sensed attributes 640. In other embodiments,mathematical models may be developed based on experimental data forconditioning certain types of foods, for instance more popular foodssuch as fish or salmon that are notoriously harder to condition toperfection. Additionally, the location of the conditioner 570 may beutilized to determine the ambient pressure and other characteristicsthat are important to cooking times and utilized to output a modifiedconditioning protocol 660.

Then, the controller 530 may output various conditioning options to theconsumer for conditioning the salmon as disclosed herein, to maximizenutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic values, or other consumerpreferences. The controller 530 would then take the consumer input 620to further modify the conditioning protocol to output a new modifiedconditioning protocol 660 that may be implemented to condition thesalmon. For example, the consumer may input their desire to preserve themaximum amount of omega 3 fatty acids in the piece of salmon. Therefore,the controller 530 will determine based on the modified conditioningprotocols 660 provided by input from the sensed attributes 640,nutritional data 630, and location data 650, how to further modify theprotocols or select the optimum protocol to maximize the omega threecontent of the salmon. For instance, it may be known, or testing mayshow that both microwaving and the shortest cooking time maximize theomega 3. Therefore, the conditioner may the implement the modifiedconditioning protocol 660 that primarily or solely microwaves the fish.In another embodiment, a combination of microwaving and convection orgrilling may be used for a modified conditioning protocol 660 thatpreserves most omega threes but also maximizes taste.

Conditioning protocols 610, may include various protocols for cooking orcondition nutritional substances 520 based on time, heat, surfacetemperature of food, different cycles, different conditioning methods,including microwaving, convention, grilling, etc. For instance, it maybe noted that for salmon, microwaving is the optimal way to preserve thenutritional value of a piece of salmon as determined by the controller530 accessing the nutritional data 630, from the database. Otherembodiments may use a combination of microwave, convention, grilling orother methods to maximize the nutritional, organoleptic, or aestheticvalues desired by the consumer based on the consumer input 620.

Once the conditioner begins conditioning the nutritional substance 520,the attribute sensors 591 may continue provide data regarding sensedattributes 640 of the nutritional substance during cooking. This datamay be utilized to further modify the conditioning protocol 610 based ondeviations from the expected values. For example, if a piece of salmonis used and an infrared surface temperature attribute sensor 591 detectsthe salmon surface temperature, once the modified conditioning protocol660 is determined and implemented, the sensor 591 may continue to detectthe surface temperature and compare it to data from the database 550from prior tests. It may be that this salmon surface temperature risesmore quickly, perhaps because although the salmon weighs the same, thesalmon is thicker than the tested salmon. Therefore, the modifiedconditioning protocol 660 may be further modified based on feedback fromthe sensors in the form of sensed attributes 640. This may be acontinuous or periodic feedback loop that allows the various attributesensors 591 to detect various factors to indicate the progress ofcooking and whether the conditioning protocol needs to be modified toaccount for individual variation. In this case, if the temperature risesfaster than expected the overall cooking time or target surfacetemperature may be decreased appropriately to form a new modifiedconditioning protocol 660. In other examples, color based sensors may beable to detect changes in food that are associated with being cooked orfinished cooking. Accordingly, a combination of visual, temperature, andweight data may be utilized to find the optimal stopping time for whenthe nutritional substance 520 is finished cooking.

In another embodiment, a conditioning appliance is provided with atleast one of a nutritional substance reader 590 and nutritionalsubstance attribute sensors 591, including a weight sensor. In otherexamples, the physical attributes sensors may include elevation (i.e.GPS), ambient pressure, texture, moisture, relative humidity, color, andother attribute sensors. The conditioning appliance is further providedwith the ability to identify specific types of containers, including,but not limited to, plates, bowls, pan, grill, cookware, and so forth.The conditioning appliance may identify such a container by using thenutritional substance reader to identify an identifier on the containerunique to that type of container, using an attribute sensor to identifyan attribute unique to such a container, or using container detectors toidentify unique types of containers, for instance the container may havean RFID tag enabling an RFID reader used as the container detector toidentify it. Such a conditioning appliance can be used to determineadaptive conditioning parameters that are responsive to the currentnutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values of the nutritionalsubstance, consumer input, consumer experience input, and attributesensor information during conditioning, but are additionally responsiveto the specific container being used (for example by subtracting theweight of the specific container from the sensed weight of thenutritional substance 520). In this way, the adaptive conditioningparameters may even account for the physical properties of the containerholding the nutritional substance, including, but not limited to, thecontainer's weight, thermal conductivity, and so forth.

In an embodiment of the present invention, conditioner 570 is providedwithout controller 530 and nutritional substance attribute sensors 591,however it is provided in a format to be compatible with controller 530and nutritional substance attribute sensors 591. Such a conditioner isalso referred to herein as an information and sensing capableconditioner. In contrast, traditional conditioners, also referred toherein as dumb conditioners, are not information and sensing capable,are not compatible with controller 530 and nutritional attribute sensors591, and accordingly will always be dumb conditioners. As informationand sensing enabled conditioning systems according to the presentinvention are increasingly available, dumb conditioners will becomeincreasingly obsolete.

Information and sensing capable conditioners may be provided in avariety of configurations known to those skilled in the art, and theexamples offered herein are for purposed of illustration and notintended to be limiting in any way. In one example of an information andsensing capable conditioner, it is provided with traditionalfunctionality, that is, it will interact with nutritional substances ina traditional fashion. However, the information and sensing capableconditioner is compatible with separately available controller 530 andnutritional substance attribute sensors 591, such that at any timeduring or after the manufacture and sale of the information and sensingcapable conditioner, controller 530 and nutritional substance attributesensors 591 may be coupled with the information and sensing capableconditioner to enable the full functionality and benefit of conditionermodule 500. Information and sensing capable conditioners provideappliance manufacturers and consumers great flexibility, and will notbecome obsolete like dumb conditioners.

The coupling of controller 530 and nutritional attribute sensors 591 tothe information and sensing capable conditioner may take any physicaland/or communication format known to those skilled in the art. These mayinclude, but are not limited to: an information and sensing capableconditioner provided with Bluetooth, or other wireless near-fieldcommunication capability, to communicate with a communication-compatiblecontroller 530, wherein nutritional substance attribute sensors 591 arecoupled with, or in communication with, controller 530. The controller530 may be any of a completely separate unit, an externally attachableunit, and an internally placed unit, while portions of the nutritionalsubstance attribute sensors may be positioned in proximity to, on, orwithin the conditioner 570, such as in ports or windows provided withthe information and sensing capable conditioner; an information andsensing capable conditioner provided with a USB port, or otherelectrical communication capability, to communicate with acommunication-compatible controller 530, wherein nutritional substanceattribute sensors 591 are coupled with, or in communication with,controller 530. The controller 530 may be any of a completely separateunit, an externally attachable unit, and an internally placed unit,while portions of the nutritional substance attribute sensors may bepositioned in proximity to, on, or within the information and sensingcapable conditioner, such as in ports or windows provided with theinformation and sensing capable conditioner; an information and sensingcapable conditioner provided with a fiber optic port, or other opticalcommunication capability, to communicate with a communication-compatiblecontroller 530, wherein nutritional substance attribute sensors 591 arecoupled with, or in communication with, controller 530. The controller530 may be any of a completely separate unit, an externally attachableunit, and an internally placed unit, while portions of the nutritionalsubstance attribute sensors may be positioned in proximity to, on, orwithin the information and sensing capable conditioner, such as in portsor windows provided with the information and sensing capableconditioner; or an information and sensing capable conditioner providedwith WiFi, or other wireless communication capability, to communicatewith a WiFi compatible controller 530, wherein nutritional substanceattribute sensors 591 are coupled with, or in communication with,controller 530. The controller 530 may be any of a completely separateunit, an externally attachable unit, and an internally placed unit,while portions of the nutritional substance attribute sensors may bepositioned in proximity to, on, or within the conditioner 570, such asin ports or windows provided with the information and sensing capableconditioner. It is understood that the controller 530 may be providedwith its own consumer interface, may communicate and be operated throughthe consumer interface provided with the information and sensing capableconditioner, or a combination of both.

For example, an external weight sensor may be provided that may bewirelessly coupled to conditioner 570 or provided any other means ofconnecting the weight sensor to conditioner 570, for instance, by a USBport. The external weight sensor 591 may take the form of a separatescale that is provided with its own nutritional substance reader 590.Accordingly, the consumer 540 may scan a dynamic information identifieron a nutritional substance 520, and then weigh the nutritional substanceon the external weight sensor 591 in order to determine a current ΔNvalue of the nutritional substance by reference to a nutritionalsubstance database 550, and/or a nutritional substance attribute librarydataset within the database. This external weight sensor 591 may beintegrated with any of the various systems disclosed herein and may beutilized at any time to determine a ΔN value of the nutritionalsubstance 520 that is approximated more precisely based on the actualweight of the substance 520. This may be beneficial to allow a consumerthat wishes to consume a portion of a nutritional substance 520 that isprepackaged as a specific size, or a portion that does not fall neatlywithin a predetermined or pre-calculated serving size of a nutritionalsubstance 520. This external weight sensor may be a freestandingelectronic scale or integrated into any other appliance, in order toallow a consumer 540 to retrieve current ΔN information of a nutritionalsubstance 520, regardless of the portion size the consumer or otherentities along the food chain wish to evaluate and/or consumer.

It is understood that nutritional substance attribute sensors accordingto the present inventions, can beneficially be provided with, orcombined with, other nutritional substance modules, includingtransformation, preservation, and consumer modules. For example, thenutritional substance attribute sensors could be provided with the localstorage environments, containers, and coupons described herein.Nutritional substance attribute sensors, or at least a portion of thenutritional substance attribute sensor, could be provided with orincorporated into the package of any pre-packaged nutritional substance,such that a consumer may interrogate the package without disrupting itsintegrity to obtain information related to a nutritional, organoleptic,or aesthetic value of the nutritional substance contained therein.Further, nutritional substance attribute sensors, or at least a portionof the nutritional substance attribute sensor, could be provided with,coupled to, or incorporated into smartphones. This would enable a widearray of users and scenarios wherein nutritional substances can beidentified and their current nutritional, organoleptic, and aestheticstate can be determined.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive sense (i.e., to say, in thesense of “including, but not limited to”), as opposed to an exclusive orexhaustive sense. As used herein, the terms “connected,” “coupled,” orany variant thereof means any connection or coupling, either direct orindirect, between two or more elements. Such a coupling or connectionbetween the elements can be physical, logical, or a combination thereof.Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,” and words of similarimport, when used in this application, refer to this application as awhole and not to any particular portions of this application. Where thecontext permits, words in the above Detailed Description using thesingular or plural number may also include the plural or singular numberrespectively. The word “or,” in reference to a list of two or moreitems, covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any ofthe items in the list, all of the items in the list, and any combinationof the items in the list.

The above Detailed Description of examples of the invention is notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise formdisclosed above. While specific examples for the invention are describedabove for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications arepossible within the scope of the invention, as those skilled in therelevant art will recognize. While processes or blocks are presented ina given order in this application, alternative implementations mayperform routines having steps performed in a different order, or employsystems having blocks in a different order. Some processes or blocks maybe deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/or modified toprovide alternative or sub-combinations. Also, while processes or blocksare at times shown as being performed in series, these processes orblocks may instead be performed or implemented in parallel, or may beperformed at different times. Further any specific numbers noted hereinare only examples. It is understood that alternative implementations mayemploy differing values or ranges.

The various illustrations and teachings provided herein can also beapplied to systems other than the system described above. The elementsand acts of the various examples described above can be combined toprovide further implementations of the invention.

Any patents and applications and other references noted above, includingany that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporatedherein by reference. Aspects of the invention can be modified, ifnecessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts included insuch references to provide further implementations of the invention.

These and other changes can be made to the invention in light of theabove Detailed Description. While the above description describescertain examples of the invention, and describes the best modecontemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, theinvention can be practiced in many ways. Details of the system may varyconsiderably in its specific implementation, while still beingencompassed by the invention disclosed herein. As noted above,particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspectsof the invention should not be taken to imply that the terminology isbeing redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics,features, or aspects of the invention with which that terminology isassociated. In general, the terms used in the following claims shouldnot be construed to limit the invention to the specific examplesdisclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Descriptionsection explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope ofthe invention encompasses not only the disclosed examples, but also allequivalent ways of practicing or implementing the invention under theclaims.

While certain aspects of the invention are presented below in certainclaim forms, the applicant contemplates the various aspects of theinvention in any number of claim forms. For example, while only oneaspect of the invention is recited as a means-plus-function claim under35 U.S.C. §112, sixth paragraph, other aspects may likewise be embodiedas a means-plus-function claim, or in other forms, such as beingembodied in a computer-readable medium. Any claims intended to betreated under 35 U.S.C. §112, ¶6 will begin with the words “means for.”Accordingly, the applicant reserves the right to add additional claimsafter filing the application to pursue such additional claim forms forother aspects of the invention.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A dynamic conditioning system fornutritional substances comprising: an input panel, configured to receiveinput regarding a type of nutritional substance; a database includingvarious conditioning protocols for the nutritional substance, whereinthe conditioning protocols each comprise a sequence of steps forconditioning the nutritional substance, and wherein each step comprisesdifferent conditioning parameters; a probe temperature sensor configuredto detect an internal temperature of the nutritional substance andoutput sensor data related to the internal temperature; and a controllerconfigured to adapt operation of the conditioning system responsive toat least one of the conditioning protocols for the nutritional substanceand further configured to advance the conditioning protocol betweensteps based on the sensor data.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein theconditioning parameters comprise time or internal nutritional substancetemperature.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the conditioning systemfurther comprises a weight sensor configured to output weight datarelated to a weight of a nutritional substance inside the conditioningsystem and wherein the controller modifies at least one step of the atleast one of the conditioning protocols based on the weight data bychanging a time or temperature of conditioning.
 4. The system of claim1, wherein at least one step of the sequence of steps comprisesconditioning parameters sufficient for browning.
 5. The system of claim1, wherein the probe temperature sensor is wireless.
 6. The system ofclaim 3, wherein the weight sensor is integrated with the conditioningsystem to allow the weight sensors to output weight data duringconditioning.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the controllerperiodically modifies the conditioning protocol based on sensor datadetected periodically throughout conditioning of the nutritional substance.
 8. A dynamic conditioning system for conditioning nutritionalsubstances comprising: an input panel configured to receive informationregarding a nutritional substance; an infrared temperature sensorpositioned to sense a surface temperature of the nutritional substanceand output sensor data; one or more conditioners; a database comprisinga set conditioning protocols referenced to known nutritional substances,wherein each of the set of conditioning protocols comprise a sequence ofsteps for conditioning a referenced known nutritional substance, andwherein each step comprises different conditioning parameters for theone or more conditioners; a memory with machine executable code; acontroller, comprising one or more processors, the one or moreprocessors configured to execute the machine executable code to causethe processor to: receive, at the controller, a conditioning protocolfrom the database referenced to the nutritional substance; operating theconditioning parameters of the one more conditioners based on theconditioning protocol; and automatically advance, by the controller, theconditioning protocol between steps based on data output from theinfrared temperature sensor.
 9. The dynamic conditioning system of claim8, wherein one of the sequences of steps comprises defrosting.
 10. Thedynamic conditioning system of claim 8, wherein the controller isfurther configured to adapt the conditioning protocol responsive to anutritional or organoleptic value determined prior to conditioning. 11.The system of claim 10, wherein the conditioning parameters comprisetime or surface nutritional substance temperature.
 12. The system ofclaim 10, wherein the conditioning system further comprises a weightsensor configured to output weight data related to a weight of anutritional substance inside the conditioning system and wherein thecontroller modifies at least one step of the at least one of theconditioning protocols based on the weight data by changing a time orsurface temperature of conditioning.
 13. The system of claim 10, whereinat least one step of the sequence of steps comprises conditioningparameters sufficient for browning and at least one of the conditioningparameters comprises surface temperature of the nutritional substance.14. The system of claim 3, wherein the weight sensor is integrated withthe conditioning system to allow the weight sensors to output weightdata during conditioning.
 15. The system of claim 1, wherein thecontroller periodically modifies the conditioning protocol based on thesensor data detected periodically throughout conditioning of thenutritional substance.